Look! Up In The Sky!
by Belcris
Summary: On a world facing inevitable death, a group of heroes makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the life of a child. That sacrifice triggers a change in the multiverse that no one could have ever expected and now Harry Potter will become the hero the world needs. With his friends at his side, Justice will prevail! Harry/Kara. AU. Based on the DC Crisis on Infinite Earths series.
1. Chapter 1

**Look! Up in the Sky!**

_By: Belcris_

_Summary: On a world facing death, a group of heroes makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the life of a child. That Sacrifice triggers a change in the Multiverse no one could have ever expected and now Harry Potter will become the hero the world needs. With his friends at his side, Justice will prevail! _

_Harry Potter created by: JK Rowling _

_All DC Comic Characters are owned by DC Comics_

_Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and I do not seek to profit from this story. _

_WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, foul language, gratuitous panty humor, multiple sexy witches, and a confident Harry. _

_Category: AU. Crossover. Adventure. Friendship. Romance._

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**Chapter One: The End of the World**

_**Earth-777/Alpha**_

_**7th July, 2012**_

_**Gotham City**_

_**Batcave**_

* * *

"Bruce!"

Bruce Wayne, once known as the masked vigilante and hero Batman, sat in front of a massive computer working on something that only he would think of. Turning around, he saw his friend and fellow Justice League member, Clark Kent, better known as Superman streaking through the air towards him. The "Man of Steel" quickly landed after entering the Batcave through one of the many hidden entrances Bruce had installed for him over the years. The normally exuberant Kryptonian had a look of resignation on his face that did not bode well for the outcome of the mission he had been sent on only a few short days ago.

"Welcome back, Clark," greeted Bruce as he rolled his wheelchair away from the computer's controls.

Bruce had fought the war against crime for over forty years and during that time his body had suffered many grievous injuries, until finally he had been forced to use a wheelchair in his everyday life. The finest doctors that money could hire had said there was no other recourse given the extensive damage, not that Bruce had listened to them. It took him a great deal of money, something he had in abundance, but Bruce had managed to build a new an improved Batman suit that incorporated an exoskeleton thus allowing him to walk again. The world might know that Bruce Wayne was crippled, but Batman was still out there fighting the good fight.

"_It's the best alibi I've ever seen, though the price was a little high,"_ thought Bruce as he rolled his chair down the ramp to where his friend was standing. "That look on your face does not bode well for what you discovered."

"No," agreed Clark with a sad smile. "It doesn't bode well at all, old man."

Clark Kent, better known to the world at large by the title Superman, was a relative newcomer to the "superhero" community. The twenty-something year old man had been the last survivor of his home world, sent to Earth by his parents to avoid their fate. Clark's spaceship had been discovered by a kindly old couple that had quickly taken him in and raised him to believe in old traditional values such as honor and honesty, but also that you should always do the right thing. After the death of his "parents," Clark had moved to Metropolis and begun a career as a crime fighter, soon gaining himself a reputation as a stalwart defender of human rights and an eternally naive do-gooder. That was when he drew Bruce's attention, as well as that of the Justice League, and soon the Kryptonian was a member of their illustrious ranks.

"I asked for help from Hal to get out to the far edge of the galaxy and confirmed what you feared," replied Clark. "The antimatter cloud is still expanding, moving faster with every moment. Based on the calculations made by the Guardians of Oa, the cloud will annihilate everything in this Universe within the next forty-one days. However, Earth will not have to worry about that as we only have twenty-three days before the cloud reaches us."

Bruce sighed and wiped his hands across his face before looking up at Clark with a sad smile. "When Wayne Aerospace first brought this information to me, I prayed they were wrong, but it seems I really did hire the best minds in the business. Thankfully, that is the very reason I think we still have some hope for the future."

"Bruce," objected Clark. "I don't know if you were listening or not, but there is no hope for us, or anyone else in this Universe. That cloud is annihilating everything in its path. There is no future!"

"Maybe not for us," agreed Bruce, "but maybe for another Universe. Follow me."

Clark followed as Bruce rolled his wheelchair back towards the furthest section of the cave. This was where Bruce stored the projects he considered the most sensitive, or sometimes the most dangerous depending on what it was. It was here that he first perfected the armor he currently wore when in the guise of Batman, and it was also here that he perfected the newest version of it. Still, it was not the armor that interested Bruce at the moment. Instead it was the two alien craft he had stored here.

Shortly after joining the Justice League, Clark had approached Bruce with an interesting proposition. Clark wanted Bruce to look over what was left of the ship that had originally brought him to Earth in the hopes that the older man could repair it. Clark had evidently tried many times to learn everything he cold about it, but it had been far too damaged for the young alien to do much with it. Sad really, considering the first thing Bruce had discovered had been a "black-box" of sorts that he suspected once held the answers to all of Clark's questions, but it was unfortunately destroyed either upon landing or at some point during the trip to Earth. In either case, it was useless to them now.

Then three months ago their fellow Justice League member, Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of this sector had contacted them with urgent news. A ship had been discovered floating dead in what remained of the planet Krypton and it seemed to contain a single survivor of the long lost planet. As Hal, along with several of his friends in the Green Lantern Corps, had been the one to help Clark discover much of his origins, the last Kryptonian was eager to see what the Lantern had found. Their little adventure to retrieve the Kryptonian ship had been fraught with danger and not a little sadness, but after some hard work they came away the victor of the day. Not only were they able to recover the Kryptonian ship, but also the passenger inside it. Immediately the ship was moved to the Batcave to keep it safe, but also in the hopes that the Justice League members would eventually be able to figure out how to release its sole occupant.

Upon first entering the pitch black interior of the ship, Bruce had realized it was nothing more than a modified short range shuttle of some sort as he panned his flashlight around the compartment. There were clear signs that it had been stripped of all creature comforts allowing for a rather large glass topped sarcophagus like device to be placed in the center of the compartment. It looked like room had been built into the walls for seven more of the devices, but they had evidently not been installed at the time the ship was launched. Bruce wondered what the purpose of the sarcophagus was when suddenly lights activated inside the ship revealing the face of its only occupant, a little girl with bright golden hair and a stuffed animal clutched tightly in her arms.

The little girl had quickly been given the nickname Sunshine, in honor of her golden hair. There wasn't a member of the Justice League that didn't spend at least a few hours a week working on ways of releasing the small girl from what they now realized was a Kryptonian stasis pod. So far, despite all their best efforts and even a few crackpot ideas, nothing had worked. Still, they kept working and eventually managed to repair all the main systems of the ship. Thanks to what Bruce had learned from Clark's own ship they could at least do that, but they had yet to figure out how to release the child from her sleep. Now, given Clark's confirmation of Bruce's worst fears, that might be for the best.

"What are we doing back here, Bruce?" asked Clark. "I can't go in there and look at her knowing what I know now. It's not fair that she'll never wake up, but maybe it's for the best that she never know what fate has in store for her."

"That's just it, Clark," said Bruce with a rare smile. "We may not survive, but I think she will."

Bruce motioned for Clark to follow him over to a computer terminal that had been setup beside the now repaired shuttle. The terminal was attached to the ship and its docking cradle so that it could interface with both. On the terminal's screen were schematics for the shuttles highly advanced shield emitters. Clark could only barely grasp the highly advanced designs as he had only a passing knowledge of it based on trying to repair his own ship, but he could tell they were far more advanced than anything he had dealt with before. Bruce had told him that even his people had not been able to grasp the overall concept of the shields, yet Bruce seemed to be able to look at them and appreciate them as one would a masterpiece of classical music.

"Whomever designed these shields must have been an absolute genius," stated Bruce as he looked at the screen. "They not only kept the ship intact when Krypton's sun exploded, they managed to shift the ship to an entirely separate dimension from our own. Hell, the only reason Hal even discovered the shuttle is because its power core had been running low and needed to return to normal space long enough to recharge. From what I can tell, if Hal had been even a few days later in exploring the area, the core would have been fully recharged and returned the shuttle to the pocket dimension it had been hiding in."

"So this helps us how?" asked Clark. "Are we going to build shields like this for Earth?"

Bruce laughed, a bitter and humorless laugh. "Not a chance, Clark. The time and materials needed to build a shield array big enough to protect us from what's coming would take years to complete. Even if we had the time and materials, I doubt we could manage it based on the level of technology we're talking about. It's just too advanced for any civilization in the known Universe to pull off right now."

Clark balled up his fists in frustration, turning to Bruce and yelling, "Then what's the point of this, Bruce? Why tease me with a possible solution to our fate if it's an impossibility?"

"Because, Clark, as I said, this isn't a solution for us," replied Bruce with a sad smile, "but for her and the future, it is still possible."

What followed was an explanation on Bruce's part as to how he planned on using the Argo, the name of the shuttle as revealed when they finally deciphered the shuttle's computer operating system, as a lifeboat of sorts. Inside the shuttle would be stored digital copies of Earth's history and knowledge, along with biological samples of various animals, plants, insects, and even people. Then the shields would be engaged, sinking the shuttle into a pocket dimension that would remain safe from the destruction of their Universe. Bruce also intended to incorporate the power cells from Clark's own ship into the shuttle, allowing it to remain in the pocket dimension for much longer.

"We don't know what will happen after the antimatter cloud consumes everything, but I'm hoping it will generate a new 'big bang.' That means she might be sitting in there for a long while, but eventually conditions should be right for her return to our dimension again, and from there the resurrection of our world. I've programmed the shuttle's computers to keep an eye on conditions here, so that when the time is right she can be set free."

"What if the there is nothing after the cloud has consumed everything?" asked Clark. "What if this is the end of us and there is nothing after that cloud passes?"

Bruce sighed, then touched a few keys on the terminal causing a new schematic to appear. "If that is the case and nothing remains after the cloud finishes its work, then the shuttle will attempt to find a different dimension capable of supporting life. If that also fails, then I have set the computers to overload the power core, destroying the ship and its cargo, maybe allowing Sunshine to at least see her family in the next life, if there is one."

Clark thought it was a gamble, but eventually Bruce convinced him it was worth a shot. They spent the next fifteen days gathering all the information and biological samples needed. Then they spent another three days installing it and numerous special devices into the craft for its final mission. When they were done, everyone involved agreed that they had done everything possible to save their way of life and one little girl that deserved better than to sleep forever. With only three days left before the antimatter cloud reached Earth, the members of the Justice league gathered in the Batcave a final time to say farewell to Sunshine, each leaving behind a gift for the little girl in the hopes that someday she would find them.

Clark's gift was a locket with a lock of his hair along with a recorded message telling her about himself and how he hoped she would have a glorious future. Bruce's gift was a bit more pragmatic, as he included his most advanced suit of Batman armor which contained an AI based on his own mind to act as her teacher. Hal Jordan, the last Green Lantern since the rest of the Corps had died trying to stop the antimatter cloud, left her his power ring and battery saying that there should always be a Green Lantern to defend the innocent. The Flash left behind a complete set of his favorite comic books and several frozen pizzas, along with several drops of his blood thanks to a paper cut from one of his comics. Wonder Woman followed Clark and Hal's example by leaving behind a lock of her hair along with her lasso, tiara, bracelets, and belt as a reminder that a woman can be just as strong as a man. This inspired Hawkgirl to do the same, seeing as she had no further use for them, and so she left behind her Nth metal mace and belt along with several feathers.

Finally it was time to seal the shuttle and power up the shields, so with a final salute from the gathered superheroes, the activation code was entered and the shuttle vanished into its own little dimension to wait. With a few hugs and a rather passionate kiss between Bruce and Diana, she no longer wished to be called Wonder Woman as she could no longer protect 'Man's World,' the heroes all went their separate ways to find whatever peace they could in their final days.

Clark and Flash would spend their last three days speeding around the planet making sure everyone had a perfect final three days. Hal on the other hand went and spent his time with his long time girlfriend, mostly flying jets and making love. Hawkgirl vanished into the forests of Colorado never to be seen again, while Bruce and Diana spent their last three days together on a remote tropical island just enjoying themselves and indulging in long hours of relaxation. That was how the end found all of them when the antimatter cloud swept through Earth's solar system. Some inwardly raged against their fate, but most just closed their eyes and prayed that one golden haired little girl would find happiness in whatever form possible.

While all this was happening, a figure watched the events happening on Earth-777/Alpha with a smile on his face. The figure was called the Monitor and it was his thought that maybe Bruce Wayne had a better idea than he himself had known. So, using his vast powers, the Monitor pulled the Argo from where it rested and brought it to his base. Once there he quickly set about making changes in an attempt to safeguard the Positive Matter Universe from his counterpart, the Anti-Monitor in the Antimatter Universe. Their war had been long and fraught with losses on both sides, but now their endgame was quickly approaching and neither really knew who would win in the end.

However there was a third outcome that the Anti-Monitor had never even considered and the Monitor himself had only recently discovered. Both of them had always thought it was their creation that had made possible the reality of multiple Universes, but the Monitor now knew that to be untrue. His research had taken untold years, but now he knew that it was actually a choice made just seconds before their creation that had created the first alternate Universe. On the one hand there was the set of realities in which the Monitor and his anti-thesis existed, along with a near infinite number of parallel alternate realities branching off from it. On the other hand, there existed a set of realities in which the Monitors never existed and yet it still had alternate realities which branched off from it. It was humbling, really it was, to realize that they were not as important to the Multiverse as they had thought, but the Monitor knew they had played their part in shaping this set of realities. What was really important was that both sets of realities had developed in such radically different ways and even if the branch of realities the Monitors inhabited were to be destroyed, the other Multiverse would be unaffected.

"To that end, I will send this little girl somewhere that she will be safe from this conflict," stated the Monitor as he looked down upon the sleeping form of Sunshine. "Though I think I shall leave her and her future friends just a little more than her benefactors originally intended."

Using his abilities to travel between the infinite Multiverses, the Monitor gathered up several additional gifts for the sleeping girl. In place of the Green Lantern power ring and battery that Hal Jordan had left her, the Monitor provided her with a miniaturized version of the Great Battery from Oa along with a modified version of Hal Jordan's ring which would draw its power directly from the main battery until such time as the bearer found a suitable place to setup a permanent base of operations. Then the bearer would be able to create new rings and the Green Lantern Corps would flourish again, though hopefully with a little more common sense this time.

Then the Monitor gathered up the various genetic samples that had been left in the shuttle, both knowingly and unknowingly. He discarded the biological samples intended to repopulate a new planet as the place he was sending the shuttle would already be populated. He gathered the samples from Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Hawkgirl. Each of these samples were enhanced and stored for later use. Then he debated just getting better samples from stronger versions of the heroes that had provided the original material, but even to him it felt wrong to just throw away what was a symbol of the sacrifices that had been made to save this one small child. It just wasn't right to throw all that away.

The same could be said for the different pieces of equipment that had been left behind. The monitor modified each piece to make them stronger, but always keeping the original in honor of those that had given him the idea. Still, that didn't mean he was above tinkering with their gifts just a little bit. So what if he strengthened the genetic samples. So what if he improved the weapons and tools. So what if he replaced the knowledge in the computer systems with a complete copy of the history and knowledge of Krypton in the form of a very special blue crystal. In the end what was important was that even if he lost this war with the Anti-Monitor, there would still be heroes to protect the innocent.

That was the reason he was currently working on six very special delivery systems for his gifts. Each was a highly advanced robotic drone capable of seeking out people that were worthy of receiving his gifts and the responsibilities that went with them. As such, the moment the shuttle reached its final destination, the drones would seek out the people best suited to become the new Justice League of their world. Most importantly the drones, especially the one holding the Kryptonian DNA, would signal the shuttle that it was time for its passenger to wake up. Yes, he had fixed the issue that had kept the little girl locked in her stasis chamber, so now she would be freed as soon as was safe to do so. As such, he entered the criteria necessary to define a new version of the Justice League and upon completion he sealed the shuttle and sent it on its merry way to a new Universe.

Even as he watched it vanish from sight, the Monitor knew he might fail his attempt to bring peace to this Universe, but he had insured peace in another. That thought alone brought him some peace of mind as he walked back towards his control room. He had much to do and very little time to do it in as he was expecting Harbinger to arrive shortly and with it his death. That fact was unavoidable, but at least he had accomplished what he set out to do.

* * *

**Earth-7/Beta**

**30th July, 1988**

**Little Whinging, Surrey, England**

A seven, very soon to be eight year-old Harry Potter was currently hiding in a wooded area behind his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon's house. Yesterday his Aunt Marge and her horrid dog, Ripper, had arrived to watch over Harry and his cousin Dudley for the weekend. Harry's Aunt and Uncle were going away for the week thanks to a sudden bonus Vernon had gotten at work. The two would be away for the week and Marge would be watching over the boys while they were gone. Harry considered it to be the worst possible thing that could happen to him, a fact that had been proven true not an hour after his aunt and uncle drove off. Marge had started drinking the moment she was alone with the boys, and after an hour she decided that Harry was not showing her the proper manners as he delivered her drinks to her. With a rather evil gleam in her eye, Marge pulled out a large wad of pound notes and offered them all to Dudley if he would only "beat some manners" into Harry.

The resulting beating at the hands of his cousin had not been so bad, but then Ripper had gotten involved and it had become infinitely worse. Without even thinking Harry had kicked the dog away and Marge had become enraged. Dudley had hurt him, but Marge had nearly killed him. The woman was in a rage, kicking and stomping on the small boy until the exertion started to burn the alcohol from her body. Regaining her senses, or as close to it as Marge could ever come, she had looked at her handy work and realized there would never be a way to explain Harry's condition to the authorities that did not involve her spending a long time in a prison cell. Thinking fast, Marge relied once again on the greed of her nephew when she again offered to pay Dudley if he would drag Harry into the woods. It was her sincerest wish that the injured boy would die of his wounds, or at least exposure as the nights had recently been unseasonably cold for this time of year and that no one would ever find out what she had done. Then she would be able to claim the boy had run off and his injuries, if he were ever found, could be blamed on the criminals that he most likely had been associating with.

Harry had awoken in great pain surrounded by pitch black and the sounds of insects all around him. He didn't mind either, not really, considering most of his life had been spent in a cupboard under the stairs with no light and spiders everywhere. No, what bothered him was the fact that he was alone. Even in his cupboard under the stairs he had never really been alone as he had always known that his "family" was just outside. That was not the case now. Now he was really alone and that scared him.

At first he had tried dragging himself in the direction he hoped home lay, but his injuries soon got the better of him. It was obvious from the way his left leg and right arm were bent that both were broken. Even if the odd angles they were bent at hadn't tipped him off to that fact, he was familiar with the pain a broken bone caused. In fact, if he had to guess, several of his ribs and a few of his fingers were broken as well. For all his faults, Vernon had always stopped hitting Harry when a bone broke, but Marge had not seemed to share that sliver of compassion and had continued to beat and stomp on him until her rage was fully vented.

Just as it started to rain, Harry used the last of his strength to pull himself under an old rotted tree that had fallen over, trying to stay dry. He figured it wouldn't really matter in the long run if he couldn't find his way home, but he still hoped someone would find him and help him. That meant he had to stay alive long enough for his hoped for savior to appear. Maybe this time someone would listen to him when he said he was being beaten, unlike the last three or four dozen times he tried to get help. A little voice in the back of his head told him he was being silly, that freaks were never listened to, but still he held onto that hope and prayed to whomever would listen to him that this time would be different.

As he lay there, hiding from the rain, Harry noticed a strange feeling in the air. It was like a tingle along his skin that made him think of the time Dudley had touched him with bared electrical wires. Harry hoped whatever was causing the sensation would not hurt as bad as that had, but given his history he wasn't going to hold out to much hope. Pain seemed to be his oldest friend and he was used to feeling it, but that didn't mean he had to like it. So, he waited to see what was going to happen, praying it wouldn't last long if it was to be painful.

That's when he saw it. Through the broken lenses of his glasses Harry watched as a bright white light filled the area just in front of where he was hiding. It was almost too bright to look at, but Harry kept his eyes open until the light started to dim. When the spots in front of his eyes finally faded away he was surprised to see what looked like a very fancy airplane laying on the ground in front of him. Whatever it was, Harry admired the shiny metallic color of the craft with its sleek lines that reminded him of a picture he had once seen at school of what a fighter jet looked like. However this was much larger than the fighter jet he had seen, looking as if it could easily hold at least several people the size of his uncle. Rain hissed as it hit the surface of the craft, which made Harry think it must be very hot.

Suddenly a hatch opened on the side of the machine, revealing numerous lights inside it, but no people. Harry wanted to see what was inside, maybe it was the person that was here to save him, but he was too weak to do anything save watch as six small objects floated out of the open hatch. Each object looked like a rather large egg, each colored in a different way than the others. Five of the eggs suddenly zipped off into the sky, but the sixth one started to fly towards him. Harry wondered what the object was, but figured in his current condition he could do nothing if it intended him harm, so why bother worrying about it.

When the floating egg, thing, whatever, was close enough to him it suddenly emitted a golden light that panned over his body slowly, then vanished. As that was happening, Harry was looking at the thing and noticed that it was blue and red with a golden S inside a strange diamond like outline. It was rather odd looking to Harry, but he secretly wished for the S to stand for "safe" or even "somebody who cares." Whatever the case, Harry was rather startled when the thing floated close enough to touch and began to speak.

"You are injured, child," a man's deep voice suddenly said. "Without medical treatment you will die soon."

Harry nodded his head, looking around for the source of the voice, but resigned to the fact that his life was now over. "My aunt and uncle always said I would probably die alone or in jail, so I guess they were right. I guess they were right about me being a freak as well then."

The floating egg seemed to think about that for a moment, bobbing up and down in the air as it seemed to ponder what Harry had said. Harry figured it agreed with his "family" and was ignoring him now, much as everyone else did. It didn't surprise him much that he would be ignored as he died since he was always ignored unless they were angry with him. In a way the silence comforted him as silence was always preferable to screaming and hitting. At least the talking egg, Harry assumed it was the egg talking as he could see no one else around, was there so that he would not be alone when he passed. Maybe he would see his mother and father when he died, that is if they let freaks into heaven, but other than that minor concern Harry was rather glad that at least now no one would be able to hurt him again.

"I have examined your DNA, child," the talking egg said after a few more moments of silence. "I can detect no abnormalities in it that would label you as a 'freak.' My scans indicate that other than a minor variation in your DNA which would allow you to harness several rare forms of energy, you are a completely 'normal' human child. In short, you may be the perfect recipient for the gift I contain."

"What kind of gift?" asked Harry, remembering that his uncle often said that no gift ever came for free.

"I contain within me the gift of power," replied the strange egg. "Power to protect the innocent and power to punish the wicked. Tell me, child, what would you do with the power I offer? Would you punish or would you protect?"

Harry thought about that for a moment. Part of him, the part that often spoke when he was being hurt by his family, said that he should use the power to punish and make people regret they had ever hurt him. Harry ignored that voice as it never gave him good advice. Instead he listened to the other part of himself, the part that wished his parents had never been killed in that car accident, which told him that with the power he was being offered he could see to it that no one else ever got hurt like he did. It was a simple choice really.

"I would protect," stated Harry as firmly as he could.

"That, child, is the right answer," replied the talking egg.

Suddenly the gold light was back again, only brighter this time. Harry suddenly felt extremely sleep and fought to keep his eyes open, but he could not fight the combination of his injuries and whatever the egg was doing. Soon he was unconscious, so he missed seeing a large needle extend from the middle of the golden S, nor did he feel it when the drone suddenly plunged the needle deep into his chest. It was probably a good thing he didn't as suddenly the egg split open and bathed Harry's body in the most brilliant golden light yet, causing his injuries to suddenly begin repairing themselves. This continued for several minutes, until finally the light faded away and the egg retracted the needle then sealed itself shut.

"My gift is now your's, child," said the voice as a last beam of energy created a thick metallic bracelet around Harry's wrist. "I hope you live up to your declaration as I think this world is going to need your protection."

With that last statement, the egg seemed to run out of power and dropped to the ground. Its bright coloring faded to dingy gray before the egg began crumbling away to dust. Within moments the egg was gone, leaving a still slightly glowing Harry Potter laying under a half rotted tree and a shuttle from another Universe waiting for him to wake up. Needless to say, at a little after midnight on the morning of the 31st of July, 1988, Harry Potter had gotten his wish and someone really had come to save him from his old life.

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AN:

Yes, another story going at the same time as Two Steps Back, but I wanted to share it with you because they are two looks at the same time period. The Triwizard Tournament is a wonderful point in the stories to start mucking about, so sue me if my mind starts running rampant with ideas.

This story is based on the **Crisis on Infinite Earths** storyline from the DC comics. Crisis was a means for DC to get rid of a lot of branches of their comics that had built up over 50 years of publishing. They literally wanted to kill off some of the storylines and needed a plausible means of doing it that wouldn't kill readership, so came up with a war between to omnipotent enemies that were determined to either destroy or protect the Multiverse.

Now this series was originally published back in 1985 and at the time I both loved and hated it. All these years later I see it as a wonderful means of adding my own spin to the story. Will there be aspects of the new storylines that DC has published since Crisis? Maybe, but I want you to remember this is not the DC Universe, so some of the things you think you know about this story just won't hold true. Don't tell me I got it wrong when you don't even know where I'm going with it yet. Okay?

As always, I'm not really writing this for you, but for me. So, with that said, if you don't like it then don't read it. I'll update as I see fit, so don't whine about it.

Chris :)

PS: Check out my blog, link is on my profile page, for further comments and pictures regarding this story and others.

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Edited: 4/2/2013 - Grammar and spelling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: New Beginnings **

**Earth 7/Beta**

**31 July, 1988**

**Little Whinging, Surrey, England**

* * *

Morning had finally arrived and a single beam of sunlight had found its way through the trees and into the eyes of a sleeping Harry Potter. It took a few moments for Harry to realize what it was disturbing his peaceful slumber. It wasn't loud and yelling, so it couldn't be anyone in his family, not to mention the fact that it was bright and his cupboard was always dark. Also, whatever he was sleeping on was much softer than the floor of his cupboard, which might mean he was in hospital again. So, either he was not in his cupboard, or his cousin was shining a light in his face again. Harry hoped it was the former and not the later as Dudley only shown a light in his face when he was getting ready to hurt him in some fashion. That idea in mind, Harry slowly cracked open an eye and tried to determine what exactly was going on.

The first thing Harry noticed was that he couldn't see a blasted thing, which meant he had either lost his glasses while he slept, or Dudley had smeared petroleum jelly on them once again. Dreading what he would find, Harry raised his hand from where it rested on his belly to see which it was. Unfortunately he found his glasses on the bridge of his nose, so that meant it was the jelly again. At least that's what he thought until he pulled them off and could suddenly see perfectly well, something he had never experienced before. As his glasses were just cheap reading spectacles his aunt had gotten out of a rubbish bin, Harry had never seen anything clearly unless it was less than an inch or two from his face. Being able to see every detail of the hand in front of his face for the first time ever, Harry had to wonder what magic was responsible for this.

Sitting up slowly, Harry realized he was still in the woods behind his aunt and uncle's house. That realization, along with the shiny metallic craft sitting just a few meters away from him, reminded him of everything else that had happened the night before. Looking down at himself he realized that he was no longer injured, all of his bones now seemed to be mended and his cuts and bruises were gone. Surprisingly Harry felt better than he ever had before. Gone were the aches and pains from all the times his uncle had broken his fingers. Also gone were the scars on the palms of his hands from burning them when cooking. Even better was the fact the constant headache he always had was gone, probably because he no longer needed his glasses to see.

"Now this is just too strange," he said to himself as he stood up and looked around. "Though I probably shouldn't complain."

That's when he noticed that his cousin's old cast off clothing seemed to fit a little better. Harry examined himself closer and realized that he seemed to have gained a good deal of muscle as he slept, not to mention a few inches in hight, allowing the formerly baggy clothes to fit a little better, even if they were still big on him. At least now they looked as if you could only fit two of him in the pants rather than the previous three of him they could have contained before. There was even a bit of ankle showing, where before the pant legs had dragged on the ground for him to trip on.

That's when he remembered the floating egg's offer of power. "I wonder if this is part of that gift it was talking about?"

Looking around for the egg to ask it a few questions, Harry could not see it anywhere nearby. He glanced back at the open hatch of the craft the egg had come out of and wondered if it had gone back inside. Harry debated the advisability of walking into a strange machine, but then decided the egg hadn't hurt him yet, so probably the craft wouldn't either. With that marvelous example of an eight year-old child's logic, Harry walked inside the shuttle without hesitation.

The first thing he noticed was the rather large coffin thingy in the center of the compartment. It seemed to be a part of the floor, but was tall enough that he had to stretch to see the top of it. He could see the top was made out of glass, but because of his hight, he could not see inside it. Curious as to what could be inside, Harry looked for something to use as a stepping stool. When he couldn't find anything inside the compartment, Harry stepped back outside and looked around for something to use. All he found was a surprisingly light rock, about four or five times the size of his head, that he easily lifted up and carried back inside the craft. Setting it down on the floor, Harry stepped up on it and looked through the glass.

What he saw was not what he expected. Given it was shaped like a large coffin, Harry had assumed it would contain an adult, but instead there was a little girl laying inside it. Harry felt bad for a moment as the little girl must be dead if she was laying in a coffin. Still, he noticed that she had the brightest golden hair he had ever seen. She was wearing a red sleeveless smock dress that came to just below her knees and left her lower legs and bare feet visible. Harry thought it was rather funny they had not cleaned her feet before putting her inside the coffin. It was obvious she had been running around barefoot when she died as the soles of her feet were very dirty.

Looking back up at her, Harry noticed she was clutching a strange looking stuffed animal. It looked like a cross between a rabbit and a cat, with the face of a cat but the ears of a rabbit. Whatever it was, it was a shockingly pink color that made Harry giggle. Of course it was pink, all girls seemed to like pink, though Harry could not for the life of him figure out why. Girls were just a mystery like that, or so Harry thought as he tried climbing a little further up onto the coffin like thing so he could get a better look at the girl inside. That's when he put his hand in the center of the glass surface and the whole thing flashed a bright blue color. Harry was so surprised that he stumbled back and fell off the rock he was standing on, landing on his backside. As he watched from his spot on the floor, the glass top of the coffin lifted up all by itself before turning to smoke and vanishing.

"Bugger," whispered Harry, starting to be a little afraid. "I've broken her coffin. Now I'm sure to get in trouble from her parents, not to mention Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia."

"Daddy?" asked a timid little voice, making Harry look around to find its source. A moment later he was shocked to see the face of the "dead" girl poke up from inside the coffin, then look down at him. "Where's my daddy?"

"You're not dead?" asked Harry, scooting back until his head hit the wall of the compartment.

The little girl suddenly giggled and stuck her tongue out at him before saying, "Of course I'm not dead, silly. Daddy said I was going to take a nap in here and when I woke up we would go get mommy and find a new home."

"What happened to your old home?" asked Harry, slowly getting up from the floor, though he kept his back firmly against the wall.

The little girl scrunched up her face for a moment, rather like Harry would sometimes when he was trying to think real hard. "Daddy said that something was wrong with our sun. He said that he and mommy were going to try and fix it, but I was going to take a nap while they did it. He said when I woke up we could go get a cabbit just like my friend Lesla got!"

"A what?" asked Harry, having never heard the word before.

The little girl answered by holding up her stuffed animal and presenting it to him as if it were the greatest treasure in the Universe. "A cabbit! I've always wanted a real one, but mommy says I'm too young to care of one, but daddy said if they managed to fix the sun then I could have one. I think it was going to be a lot of work to fix the sun because mommy had already left to fix it, but then she sent daddy a message saying she loved him and that he was going to have to look after me. I think she was going to be really late, she does that a lot with her job as a sci-en-tist, so daddy just hugged me really tight and promised her that he would make sure I was safe, then he said he would see her soon, but that I had to sleep in the special bed first so I stayed safe. Actually, I thought you were my daddy because he just put me in the special bed and kissed me goodnight a few moments ago. Did you see my daddy before you came in here? Are you going to take a nap with me? My name is Kara, what's yours? I'm kind of hungry, you have any snacks with you?"

_"Wow,"_ thought Harry as Kara rattled off her story so quickly he barely kept up with her. He didn't think she had even stopped to breath in the entire time she was talking. "Umm... My name is Harry. Sorry, I didn't see your daddy when I walked inside, but I fell asleep in the forest last night, so maybe I missed him when I was asleep. I don't have any snacks, sorry?"

"Okay," pouted the cute little girl as she climbed over the side of the coffin, bed, thingy, and sat on the edge of it with her feet dangling over the side. "What's a forest and how did you get in here? Mommy always says to keep the doors locked, and daddy never lets anyone in here, so you must have come in a window or something to get in here. Why did you do that?"

"What are you talking about?" Harry was confused now because unless you counted the hatch he walked through, he had seen nothing that remotely looked like a door or a window that would need locked. "Your machine just appeared in front of me while I was in the woods, then this floating egg thing offered me a gift which made me really sleepy, so I fell asleep. When I woke up I was looking for the egg and found you taking a nap in this thing. I don't know what's going on and I'm starting to wonder if I'm just dreaming or something. Last night I was all beat up, then I woke and found myself in the woods where a floating egg-thing starts talking to me. Now I'm talking to a girl that was sleeping in a glass coffin just like the fairy-tales. Oh, lets not forget that I'm not hurt anymore and I can suddenly see perfectly without my glasses. This has got to be the strangest birthday dream I've ever had. I normally just dream about a giant on a flying motorcycle and scary green flashes of light."

"Oh! Today is your birthday!" exclaimed Kara, dropping off the side of the coffin and briefly revealing her white knickers with images in pink of the stuffed animal she was carrying, a glimpse that had Harry suddenly blushing like mad for some reason. "My birthday was a couple weeks ago! That's when mommy got me Mr. Cabbit! I love birthdays! Mommy always makes me my favorite breakfast and daddy always gets me a new stuffed dolly! What did your mommy and daddy get you?"

Harry, now with his blush firmly under control, fought the urge to feel jealous that Kara had parents that did special things for her on her birthday. Truth be told he hadn't known when his birthday was until he entered primary school and even then it was only because one of the teachers told him when it was. They had seemed rather surprised he didn't know when his own birthday was, but his uncle had explained that he was rather touched in the head and didn't remember even the simplest things very well. After that the teacher treated him like he was the dimmest child in the class, even after he managed to teach himself how to read.

"I don't have a mummy and daddy anymore," Harry finally answered. "They died in a car accident when I was very little. That's how I got this scar."

At this Harry lifted his bangs to show the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He had asked his aunt and uncle about it several years ago, which is when they told him his parents died in a car accident because they were drunk. Harry had hated his scar ever since, but it was the fact that his cousin said it proved he was a freak that made him hate it the most. It was a symbol of everything he had lost and the fact that he was a freak, something his family seemed more than happy to remind him of on a daily basis. So what Kara said next came as something of a shock to him.

"What scar?" she asked, leaning in so close to him that their noses were almost touching. Harry was a little put off by her sudden closeness, but he also noticed that she had the bluest eyes he had ever seen in his life. "I don't see anything except some dirt, but I'm sure if you take a bath the dirt will go away. Mommy always says that there is nothing a hot bath can't fix. Daddy even said one time that I was born because of a hot bath, so they must be really good, though I don't know how I could have come out of a hot bath. I've had lots of baths and I've never found anyone in them except me. You want to take one with me and we can look together for where babies come from?"

"Umm... Sure," grunted Harry, his mind not really working at the moment.

Harry was extremely confused as he looked around for something to use as a mirror. He caught sight of a glass rectangle on the wall and ran over to it to look at himself. His reflection in the glass looked a bit odd to him. First there was the fact that his cheeks no longer looked so sunken. Then of course there was the absence of his glasses which allowed his vividly green eyes to be seen clearly, but the strangest thing, the thing that almost had Harry in tears, was the fact that his scar was gone. The symbol of his freakishness, his perpetual daily reminder that his parents were dead was completely gone. He reached out a hand to touch the reflection, daring it to mock him by changing in front of his eyes. Instead the glass glowed a warm golden color the moment his hand touched it and the room filled with a soft humming sound.

"What did you do, Harry?" asked Kara in a hushed tone, stepping over next to him.

A moment later the glass stopped glowing and the image of a man appeared inside it, just like on a television. The man had a thin face with short blond hair and dark blue eyes. The man was standing in what looked like a very fancy living room with the wall behind him being made up almost entirely of windows, revealing a star filled skyline beyond them. Kara squealed and informed Harry that it was her daddy, to which he just nodded as the image started to move and a voice filled the compartment.

"Kara, my darling baby girl," said the man's recording. "If you are seeing this then it means that I was unable to prevent our sun from exploding."

_"He was really trying to fix the sun?"_ Harry thought to himself as the recording continued. _"I never heard of anyone trying to fix the sun. Then again, no one ever tells me much, so I guess it's possible."_

"I always knew that was a possibility, but I had to try," the man continued. "I know you're too young to understand everything right now, but I have to tell you so you know. Someday, when you're older, you'll understand and I don't have time to record more than one message. I'm sorry."

Harry looked over at Kara and realized she looked afraid, so he reached out and took her hand in his earning himself a little smile as they continued listening to the message.

"We don't know what caused our sun to suddenly become unstable," said the image. "Your mother and her team went out to investigate, but a sudden solar flare damaged their ship. By the time they realized the extent of the damage, it was already too late for them. The solar radiation levels they were hit with were fatal, giving them only enough time for a last message home before the end."

Harry knew what fatal meant, and obviously so did Kara because she was now crying as the recording continued. "I knew then that I had to keep you safe and there was only one way to do that. I placed you inside the experimental shuttle I've been working on, the Argo, and powered up its stasis bed. With that done I'll download a complete copy of the Kryptonian Archives into the shuttle's computers before powering up the dimensional shield emitters which will sink the shuttle into a pocket dimension until such time as I send the recall signal, or in the case of the worst outcome until the power core depletes enough for it to return to normal space long enough to recharge. If that's the case I've built a special beacon into the shuttle that will transmit a distress signal to any Kryptonian ships in the area."

Kara was still crying, sobbing really, and Harry doubted that she was really paying attention to what her father was saying now. With that in mind, Harry focused on every word so that he could help her when the time came. There was also the fact that he suddenly knew that this man was just as dead as his wife and Harry felt he deserved for someone to hear his last message, even if it was a total stranger.

"I talked with my brother just a few moments ago and he confirmed that he is sending his son Kal-El to a planet called Earth to keep the boy safe," continued Kara's father. "I don't agree with sending a Kryptonian child to such a backwards planet, but I've set the beacon to send out a secondary signal to alert anyone from the house of El to your location. As long as nothing goes wrong, I'm sure the boy will find you if no one else does."

"Should the worst come to pass," he said after a short pause, "and no one from Krypton should find you, I've set the shuttle controls to take you to Oa after five recharge cycles. Hopefully there you will find the help you will need to restore our civilization and..."

Here the man looked over his shoulder at a window behind him. The camera recording him seemed to jerk around several times as Kara's father suddenly leapt up from his chair and ran to the window. Harry couldn't see what the man was looking at, but the look on his face was one of utter terror, he ran over to a glass panel similar to the one Harry was currently watching him on, then he slammed his fist into the wall before rushing back over and looking into the camera, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I'm out of time," he stated. "This shouldn't be happening so fast. The download is barely started and there's no time for me to do anything."

The man glanced back over his shoulder and Harry could now see that it was suddenly getting brighter outside the window. "Kara, I want you to always remember that your mother and I love you! We love you with all our hearts. No matter where you go, or what you do, we will always be proud of you!"

There was a roaring sound in the background now and Kara's father was staring intently into the camera. "Daddy loves you! Don't you ever forget that, Kara! Dimension shield, activate!"

With that last word the signal cut out and Kara screamed, "DADDY!"

It was so loud that Harry's ears were ringing, not that he really noticed. Personally, he was stunned by what he had just seen. Not the bit about what was obviously the last moments of a man's life, but by the obvious love the man felt for his daughter and the passion he clearly felt when it came to saving her life. Harry wondered if his mother or father had ever been that passionate about him or his life. Had either of them even cared about him? It was a question without an answer, but Harry hoped they had, even if it had been for the briefest of moments.

"Harry," Kara had her face buried in his chest, but her muffled voice pulled Harry out of his thoughts. "My mommy and daddy are gone."

"Yeah," he whispered. "I'm sorry, Kara."

"Who's going to tuck me in at night?" she asked after a moment, her voice trembling as she spoke. "Who'll make me my favorite breakfast on my birthday? I want my mommy and daddy back, Harry."

"I know," he agreed, all too familiar with that feeling. "I promise though, I'll always be there for you, okay?"

"Promise?" she asked, looking up at him with tear filled eyes.

"Yeah," he said, wrapping his arms around her. "I promise."

Kara was sobbing again now, only this time she was clinging to him as if he was her lifeline, which was something he didn't know how to deal with. Harry had cried many times when he was younger, but in his experience, crying just got you beaten. Now he wasn't about to hit Kara, that would just be wrong, but he wasn't sure what he should do. He couldn't take her back to the Dursley's, even if he could find his way out of the woods, for fear that they would treat her like they treated him and hit her because she was crying. Honestly, it would be better if the two of them just hid here in the shuttle until someone found them, but even then he was scared about what would happen to Kara.

The more he thought about it the more the air filled with energy. The power he had been granted combined with his natural abilities was starting to generate a massive amount of energy around him. The metallic bracelet on his wrist absorbed a great deal of the energy, turning it a golden hue, but there was only so much energy the bracelet could absorb. Kara was also absorbing a great deal of the energy, which made her skin and hair glow. If her eyes had been open Harry would have seen that they were now glowing with the power she was absorbing from him. Still, even she could not absorb it all, and finally it became too much for Harry to contain.

With a sudden scream, all that power was released into the air around Harry causing a massive wave of power to radiate out from him. It quickly spread across Little Whinging, then London, and finally all of England and Scotland. Ordinary citizens just chalked the sensation up to static electricity in the air, but the wizards and witches across the country would immediately know it for what it was. Magic. Magic on a scale not seen since the days of Merlin himself. Instantly Aurors were dispatched to discover what was going on. It didn't take them long to track the source of the disturbance.

When the three Aurors arrived on the scene they were shocked by what they found. Laying in the center of a large crater were two children, a boy and a girl, no older than eight year's old. They were holding each other tightly, almost as if their lives depended on the contact. The boy had messy black hair and wore baggy clothes while the girl had bright golden hair and wore a cute little smock dress. There was no sign of where they had come from or who they were other than a gold bracelet on the boy's wrist and a strange looking stuffed animal the girl was clinging to. Both children seemed unhurt, but any attempt to separate them caused a buildup of magical energy that scared the three Aurors silly. They finally decided to leave the kids be and just portkeyed them directly to St. Mungo's to be examined.

Little did they know that in doing so they had just thrown a massive monkey wrench in the plans of a certain Headmaster, not that they would have cared.

* * *

_AN:_

_Okay, a couple of really fast points about this chapter. First of all, think of it as a part two of three type of thing that sets up the whole premise for the story. We see the past in the first chapter, the present in this one, and the next leads us into the future. What you need to realize is that this whole thing is a Alternate Universe to both the Harry Potter and DC Universes in which I will take liberties with history to make the future of my story work. A prime example being Kara's parents. I needed them to be scientists to explain how Kara got to Earth and so that's what I made them. Don't like it, please don't read it._

_Let's be honest here, I gave you the hint this was an alternate reality in the first lines of the story when I designated the planet as **Earth 7/Beta**. Come on, this isn't the canon Universe and I don't know how much more obvious I can be about it. Heck, even the last line of the chapter tells you that I'm going to be mucking with the known facts about the books and comics, so don't go acting all surprised when I do. Okay?_

_Anyway, I stole the cabbit from Tenchi Muyo just because I thought the idea was cute. If you aren't familiar with the creature, look it up and you'll get a pretty good idea of why I think a little girl would just love the crap out of the things. Will the cabbit make further cameo's in the story, probably not other then maybe a background shot, but then again it was there for cuteness value._

_Oh, to answer one review, read the last line and you'll see that I am going to make a ton of changes. :)_

_Now, go read something._

_Chris :)_

_PS: Still looking for the artwork for this chapter. Will let you know when I find it._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Memory**

**_Earth 7/Beta_**

**_31st July, 1994_**

**_Saint-Tropez, France_**

**_Black Family Compound_**

* * *

It had been six years since the day Harry had met Kara in the woods behind his aunt and uncle's house. Six years in which so many things had changed for him that he could barely recognize his life now as compared to what it had been before that day. It amazed him that something so minor as meeting a cute little girl could set off such a fantastic chain of events, many of which were still happening now. That was why he was out flying at the moment, to avoid some of those changes. The cool sea air soothed his mind as he soared through the air, thinking about everything that had happened starting with that day.

It was late morning of the day he met Kara when Harry had awoken, the little blonde girl still held tightly in his arms, to find them both in a hospital room. A "healer," that's what magical Doctors were called, soon came in to check up on them before rushing out of the room to tell people he was awake. Minutes later an elderly man with a peg leg and a strangely spinning eye had stomped in followed by a tall woman with a monocle in one eye. The two had introduced themselves as Aurors and begun asking him all sorts of questions.

This went on for an hour and Harry had not answered a single question. The old man was rather cross with him, at least until Harry finally told Auror Moody that his teachers had always warned him to never speak to strangers, no matter what his uncle regularly told him to do. As such, Harry refused to speak to anyone until a "real police officer" arrived, or they introduced themselves. The old Auror with a smirk introduced himself as Alistair Moody, praised Harry for not being intimidated and for his caution, causing Harry to blush at the praise. Then the woman introduced herself as Amelia Bones, the deputy department head for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, a title that meant almost nothing to Harry. Those introductions out of the way, Harry told them his name, causing Moody to faint and Bones to turn pale and start pacing. Harry found the sight so funny he couldn't help but laugh, which quickly woke Kara.

It didn't take long after that for several other people to get involved in the situation. A woman named Poppy was called in to check over the two children to make sure they were unhurt. The kind woman's eyes were filled with tears as she examined Harry. The examination seemed to take forever, even though Harry thought it odd all the woman seemed to do was wave a stick at him for several long minutes. When she finished with him, Poppy examined Kara, though it took far less time for her to finish this time. Finally she smiled at the children and declared them in perfect health, then nearly dragged the two stunned Aurors from the room despite their protests. To this very day Harry had no idea what she said to the two, but whatever it was lit a fire under them that would take several weeks to put out.

The next person to be pulled in to meet Harry was a strange little man, Harry later found out it was a goblin, named Ragnok. The strange little man, as Harry thought of him then due to his lack of experience with anything other than humans, was a banker of some sort. As it turned out, Ragnok was brought in to confirm Harry's identity by use of a special test that evidently only he and his people could perform. The test required a drop of Harry's blood, something that scared him a little. Kara instantly noticed that he was afraid and offered to show him it was no big deal by allowing Ragnok to test her first. Ragnok agreed to this and pricked her finger with a small dagger, allowing a single drop of blood to fall on a large piece of paper he was holding. The moment the blood touched the paper Kara's full name, Kara Zor-El, appeared on the bottom of the page in fancy gold script. A single solid line moved up from her name before branching in two and stopping. While that was going on, a dotted line ran to the left side of her name to where Harry's name suddenly appeared in the same fancy gold script. Several moments went by with the first solid line seeming to pulse as if trying to keep moving, but then it stopped and more fancy golden script filled the top of the page and just below Kara's name. At the top of the page it stated, "Official Family Lineage of the House of El." The script under Kara's name said, "Heir to the House of El," and "Consort to Harry James Potter, Heir of House Potter."

This caused a great deal of muttering between the adults in the room and it would be years before it was explained to him that the results of Kara's lineage test was an impossibility. At the very least the test should have shown her mother and father, but it had not. Then the fact that it used golden lettering indicated she belonged to the equivalent of a royal magical family, but the lack of other names in the family tree was a mystery as no family could exist if she was the only member. Ragnok swore it was an impossibility, almost as if she had appeared out of thin air, little did he know how right he was. Still, at the time Harry was more concerned with the fact that the small cut on Kara's finger had already healed, so he allowed Ragnok to repeat the process with him.

One drop of blood later and the sheet of paper with Harry's lineage was filling up faster and faster. Soon the page was filled, so of course it magically expanded to allow more names to appear. Harry ignored all the names except for those of his parents and Kara. For the first time in his life he had learned that his mother's name was Lily, and his father's was James. Then, just like on Kara's results, a dotted line had linked his name to hers. Also like hers, the majority of the names on the paper were in gold lettering, with just a few of the spouses names being in black ink. Sadly, what had once been a very large family had died out leaving Harry the sole member and heir to the once great house.

The results of the test had the adults once again murmuring excitedly as they read over Harry's lineage. Names like Gryfindor, Slytherin, Merlin, and Peverelle were the most commonly repeated with the last two causing the most excitement. It would be several years before Harry would understand that they were excited because the results showed he was related to Four of the most famous magical families of all time, even if only distantly in most cases. At the time though, his attention was drawn to a debate the adults were having regarding several other names on the list.

Bellow Harry's name in green ink were three names, each connected to his. The first name on the list was Sirius Black, it was connect to his name with a dashed line of green ink and next to his name it said, "Godfather and Magical Guardian." Under this Sirius' name it said Albus Dumbledore and was connected to his name with a red dashed line with the words, "Usurper of Magical Guardianship" printed next to it, also in red lettering. Finally was his aunt's name, also connected to his name with a red dashed line. Next to her name was written, "Aunt / Usurper of Guardianship / Betrayer." These names seemed to have everyone in an uproar.

"Sirius black betrayed the boys family!" roared Moody, scaring Harry a little bit.

"The connection to Harry in green indicates that he has not betrayed his oaths as the boys Godfather," argued Ragnok. "If he had betrayed his oaths then the line would be in red like the other two names."

"But Albus Dumbledore is a respected member of our community," Amelia countered.

"Yet he and the boy's aunt both are connected to him by illegal means, as represented by the red line," Ragnok stated firmly. "Obviously things are not as they seem, or else their lines would be in green ink. The fact that Petunia Dursley is labeled as a 'Betrayer' also indicates that she has betrayed the Potter family by doing harm to the boy in some fashion."

"Some fashion," snorted Poppy. "The poor lad has signs of repeated broken bones, even if they do seem to be repairing themselves for some reason. She evidently had some hand in his treatment."

"I agree," said Ragnok with a nod of his head. "I think we need to revisit the Potter's final wishes if we are to get to the truth of this situation."

All the adults agreed that Ragnok was right, so after asking Harry and Kara if they would mind staying in the hospital for a little while longer, they all headed off with Ragnok to learn what they could from the Potter will. This in and of itself turned out to be a more complicated issue then they expected. As it turned out, Albus Dumbledore had used his powers as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot to seal the wills of Harry's parents, claiming the information they contained could pose a danger to the boy if it was released before he came of age. Thankfully only the copy of the will in the hands of the Ministry of Magic was sealed as the copy held by Gringott's was still available. Ragnok used his authority within the bank to have the will read. That's when the shit really hit the fan.

Albus Dumbledore had violated the Potter's wills by placing Harry with his aunt and uncle, something that put many older Magical families in a foul humor. It had clearly stated in the wills that under no circumstances was Harry to ever even go near the Dursleys, lest there be no other choice. Instead, Harry was supposed to have been raised by his Godfather, Sirius Black. When confronted with this information the old man argued that Sirius Black was a convicted murderer, so there had been no other option but to place Harry with the Dursleys. This argument was quickly squashed when it was pointed out that not only did Harry's lineage results show that Sirius had not betrayed him, but also the fact that the wills specifically stated that he was not the one responsible for protecting their secret. No, that honor had been bestowed on another friend of the family, one Peter Pettigrew, which placed severe doubts on the story that Sirius had betrayed Harry's family.

This led to the discovery that contrary to what Dumbledore claimed, Sirius had NOT been convicted of any crime. In point of fact, the poor man had been sitting in prison for the last six almost seven years without ever having been given a trial of any sort. Amelia quickly rectified that situation by having Sirius brought before the Wizengamot and tried under the effects of Veritaserum, a powerful truth serum that would insure his truthfulness. It took less than five minutes for Sirius, who was only too happy to finally get his day in court, to be proven innocent of all charges. This also led to Dumbledore losing his position as Chief Warlock based on the charges of abuse of power and dereliction of duty. The fact was even after Sirius was found innocent Dumbledore had tried for nearly an hour to convince the Wizengamot to leave the now innocent man in prison. It was behavior like that which led directly to his recall from the International Confederation of Wizards, many members of the Wizengamot believed he had begun the slow decent into senility.

Even now, six years later, no one really knew if Dumbledore had known the truth about Sirius' innocence, but enough doubt had been cast on his motives that within a year of the trial he had lost the majority of his political power in the magical world. It was only through the use of several old debts and favors owed to him that Dumbledore managed to keep his position as Headmaster at Hogwarts, but even that position was tenuous at best. Alistair "Mad-Eye" Moody, an old friend of Sirius' claimed that Dumbledore was still trying to find a way to regain control over Harry, but that currently he was stymied by the simple fact that he had already used up all of his once formidable political clout. Whatever the case might be, Harry was adamant that he would never allow the elderly wizard to have any power over him, if it could be avoided.

What this had all meant for Harry was that a week after entering the hospital with Kara, Sirius had taken custody of Harry on a full time basis. Of course Harry had refused to leave Kara behind, so Sirius used the goodwill the Wizengamot currently had for him to gain custody of her, officially making her a member of his family. Three days later they had been introduced to an old friend of Sirius' named Remus Lupin. Then there were the Tonks, the family of Sirius' cousin, Andromeda. Andromeda was a very nice woman that Harry and Kara instantly took a liking to. Ted was her husband, a first generation Wizard, and an all around good guy that Sirius' and Remus dubbed, "the Marauder that should have been." Finally there was Andromeda's daughter, Nymphadora.

Nymphadora was fourteen when Harry and Kara met her for the first time and absolutely hated her first name, insisting she be called Tonks or Nym instead. Nym was a little shy because she was a metamorphmagus, meaning the young girl had the ability to change her physical appearance with a thought. The ability fascinated Harry and Kara, but Nym was unsure if people liked her for her or for who she could look like. The two younger children didn't care one wit who she could look like, they just liked Nym because she was fun to play with. Soon the three children were inseparable, with Harry and Kara calling the young girl "our sister, Nym." For her part, Nym started changing her hair to be just like Kara's, long and golden, with her eyes being the same emerald green as Harry's. It was a look she wore even now, six years later, though she often shortened her golden locks to a pixie cut when she was taking part in training to become an Auror.

When the summer ended and Nym returned to Hogwarts to continue her schooling, Sirius and Remus packed the kids up and headed to London where Harry and Kara were enrolled in primary school. Both of them had excelled in their Non-Magical studies, Kara had a bit of extra work to do to catch up to the other children her age, but soon she and Harry were the top students in their classes. By the time they finished the school year they had tied for the number one spot in the class. Harry was a little surprised at how easily he learned things since meeting Kara, wondering if that was part of the power he had been granted when he met her.

That summer Sirius packed up the whole family, including Remus and the Tonks, and they had headed off to spend the summer at his family compound in Saint-Tropez. That was where Harry first learned that the power he had been gifted with depended on sunlight. How he learned this was by going to the beach with Kara and Tonks one day. The private beach belonging to the black family was a semi-isolated area roughly the size of two European football fields end to end. Two large rock formations separated it at both ends, giving the family all the privacy they could ever want from the "riff-raff" and gawkers as Andromeda explained it.

The three children had made their way down to the beach, Harry being forced to carry all their supplies for the day, a fact he complained about the entire time. Once there they had quickly setup their beach umbrella, several large fluffy towels to lay on, and a fully stocked picnic basket. With that accomplished, the fun began in earnest. Tonks wore a rather daring black bikini that she never would have dared wear if she was around anyone other than Harry and Kara. Kara tried to emulate the older girl by wearing a more tasteful two piece bathing suit which covered far more than Tonks' suit, but was still rather daring for an eight, nearly nine, year-old girl. Harry for his part wore a pair of emerald green trunks, he had outright rejected the idea of wearing the speedo that Tonks had suggested, feeling that the two girls were already going to be showing off enough skin that he didn't need to add to it.

The three spent a happy morning playing in the water, building sand castles, and generally having the time of their lives. Around lunch time they ate their lunch and enjoyed several magically chilled butterbeers before laying down under the umbrella to rest. Harry received his first shock of the day when Tonks took her top off in order to get a tan. Being almost nine, Harry was only barely affected by the sight of a topless Nym, never realizing how many boys at Hogwarts would have killed to be in his position right at that moment. Kara of course soon joined in by removing her own top, not that there was anything to really show, but Harry still had to fight down a blush at the sight.

Harry probably would have been even more flustered by the sight of the two topless girls, especially Nym, if not for the fact that Kara had effectively cured him it shortly after they moved in with Sirius. As it turned out, Kara was terrified of the dark, and the same night they moved into their new rooms she had snuck into Harry's. Harry had woke up in the pitch black room when Kara had crawled into his bed and asked if she could sleep with him. Of course he hadn't thought anything of it and lifted up the sheets so she could crawl in. The small girl had climbed in and immediately wrapped herself around Harry so that he had to put his arm around her. In his sleep addled mind it had not at first occurred to him that his hand was now resting on bare skin and he had quickly drifted back to sleep with Kara's head resting on his shoulder.

The next morning as the sun broke through his window, Harry was a little confused by the weight now laying almost completely on top of him. That confusion quickly passed as he realized that both his hands were resting on bare skin and in his embarrassment he pulled them away slowly, so as not to wake Kara. Lifting up the sheets that covered them he found that Kara was no longer wearing the pajamas he was sure he had seen her in before going to bed that night. Slightly embarrassed to be laying in bed with a naked girl, Harry dreaded her reaction when she woke up, sure that she would be angry at him. Oddly, when she did wake up and he asked her why she was naked, Kara just laughed at him calling him silly and explained that she didn't like how pajamas got all tangled up around her when she slept, so she just took them off once she was in bed. Then, without a care in the world, the small girl had gotten up and walked out of his room without a traces of modesty. From that night on, Kara would sneak into his room and join him in bed once everyone else was asleep, and no matter how much he pointed out she should wear something when sleeping with him, Kara would just giggle, call him silly, and crawl into bed naked.

So, with that thought in mind, it was really no surprise that Harry was not affected by the sight of two topless girls laying next to him. Sure, Tonks was more ... mature ... but that hardly registered to the mind of an eight year old boy. In point of fact, if Harry was very honest with himself he rather enjoyed it, though for him it was more the fact that both girls felt safe around him. As he got older that would change, especially where Kara was concerned, but those thoughts were many years away from Harry's mind on that particular day.

The kids had been dozing on and off in the sunlight for several hours, the wonders of charms designed to prevent sun burns allowed them to stay out all day long, when Harry's bracelet started to vibrate. He had been wearing the bracelet since the day he met Kara in the woods and had paid little or no attention to it since then. Oddly, no one other than himself and Kara seemed to even notice the solid gold bracelet. The fact that he could find no way to remove it from his wrist was a little strange, but he figured eventually he would figure it out and pushed the thought from his mind. At first Harry ignored the sensation, but as time wore on the sensation became more insistent until he finally got annoyed and lifted his arm up to get a closer look at the oddly vibrating piece of jewelry.

"What do you want?" he asked it rhetorically, never expecting an answer.

"Who you talking to?" asked Nym, rolling over so she could look at him.

Kara, who was by this point half asleep and half laying on Harry, also looked up. "Time to go in?"

"It's this bracelet," answered Harry. "It's been vibrating for a while now.

Nym, who up to this point had never noticed the bracelet on his wrist, squinted her eyes for a moment then suddenly opened them wide as the object suddenly seemed to appear on his wrist. "Where you get that, Harry? I've never seen it before."

"I've had it since I met Kara," replied Harry as the older girl sat up and moved closer in order to get a better look at the mysterious object. "When I woke up that morning in the woods, it was just there. I've had it ever since."

"But where did it come from?" asked Nym, leaning in closer to get a better look. "Mum and dad always say I shouldn't trust anything if I don't know who made it or where it came from. Dad's real insistent about that."

"I think it's pretty," offered Kara.

What happened next took all three children by surprise. Kara and Tonks both reached out to touch the bracelet at the same time, and as their fingers touched the surface of the metal there was a blinding flash of golden white light. All three children tried to jump away from the light, though Harry found that rather difficult with the source of the light being attached to his wrist. Suddenly the light was gone and in front of them, like so many years before, lay the shuttle that Harry had first found Kara inside.

Harry had often wondered what happened to the shuttle. Surely, if the Aurors that found Kara and him in the woods that night had found the shuttle, someone would have told him about it. Instead there had been no mention of the craft at all and Harry and Kara had decided not to mention it for fear that someone would start asking questions that they did not want to answer, namely where Kara was from and what did Harry know about it.

In school they had found books in the library, mostly science fiction works, that spoke of aliens and the secret government agencies that protected the world from them. Of course, the aliens were always evil and the humans were always the good guys, which caused Kara to spend several nights crying in Harry's arms when she woke up from terrible nightmares. It got so bad for a little while that Harry had even found her in her room several time s examining herself in the mirror looking for some sign that she was an alien monster. Harry had suggested they talk to Sirius, or even Remus, about her fears, but she had insisted that they not tell anyone about their secret for fear that she would be taken away.

So, to suddenly have the long lost shuttle appear in front of them was something of a shock, since they had been sure "the government men" had taken it away to some secret lab. Nym was probably the most shocked, considering she had no idea about it in the first place, a fact that instantly scared Harry and Kara. They were worried that Nym would go running to the adults and tell them about it, thus leading to Kara being taken away. It was a terrifying few moments for the two younger children, but then she did something that surprised them.

"That was SO COOL!" she shouted, jumping up and running towards the shuttle.

Nym had a lot of questions, which Harry and Kara answered as best they could. Eventually they stepped inside and played the message from Kara's father for her, which almost instantly had Kara and Nym crying again, but seemed to convince the older girl that this was not a joke of some sort. This led to even more questions after the crying had stopped, followed by a more detailed examination of the inside of the shuttle. It was Nym that discovered a strange blue crystal attached to the side of the stasis bed and it was Kara that activated it when she touched it.

The transparent image of a man suddenly appeared before them, smiling down at them. He was very tall, over two meters if Harry had to guess, with broad shoulders, black hair, and blueish grey eyes. He wore a strange outfit made up of a blue skintight body stocking, that's what Nym called it, a red set of boots and a matching cape. Emblazoned on his chest was the strange S symbol that Harry remembered seeing the egg thing having on it from the night he found Kara. Nym of course reacted to the image by letting out a wolf whistle, which caused the image to turn and face her.

"Thank you," said the image with a wink.

"You're real?" asked Harry, looking closer at the "man" when he turned back to focus on him.

"No," the image replied with a sad smile. "I'm just a recording of sorts, with a personality based on a real man."

Turning its attention towards Kara, the figured lowered itself to one knee and smiled at her. "I'm glad to see you awake, Sunshine. I never knew your real name, so I took to calling you that because of your hair. My name is Clark, by the way."

"Hi, Clark," replied Kara, rather shyly. "My name is Kara, and this is Harry and Nym."

The figure turned back and smiled at the newly introduced Harry and Nym, smiling as he said, "It's a pleasure to meet both of you. I suppose you all have a great many questions for me?"

"Oh, you bet," answered Nym.

As it turned out, there were many things that Clark did not know, such as how the shuttle could appear and disappear at a moments notice. He also had no clue as to the source of the drones, that's what he had called the egg thing Harry had seen the first night, but after hearing about it he suggested that Harry lay down in the stasis bed in order to let the ship scan him for the "power" the drone had spoken about. At first Harry had been a little reluctant, but with Kara and Nym's reassurances that they were be there, he finally relented. Twenty minutes later the results were in and Clark was staring at Harry with his jaw hanging down to his chest.

"Harry," Clark finally said. "I know what the power the drone spoke of is. The scan results show that your DNA, the bits and pieces that make you what you are, have been blended with Kryptonian DNA."

"Huh?" asked Nym. "What's that mean?"

"Yeah, what she said," added Kara.

Clark seemed to think about it for a moment before he began to explain. "Okay, you know what pancakes are, right?"

All three children nodded, so Clark continued. "Well, just like pancakes there are several ingredients needed to make them. With me so far?"

Again the trio nodded and Clark resumed speaking. "Well, think of Harry as a plain pancake before the night he found this shuttle. No, on second thought, think of him as a pancake with chocolate chips before he found the shuttle as he already had the ability to manipulate certain forms of energy."

"Magic," supplied Harry, to which Clark just nodded.

"Well," continued Clark, "that drone added a few more ingredients to the mix, like adding banana bits along with the chocolate chips. Not so much as to hide the taste of the chocolate chips, but just enough so that you could taste both, making the pancake taste even better. That's what happened to Harry. The drone mixed Kryptonian DNA with your DNA. In fact, if I had to guess, Harry had the original Clark's DNA mixed with his. Though I can't be certain because there are some variations that were not in the original's genetic structure. Where he was Kara's cousin, Harry doesn't seem to be related to her at all after the genetic splicing."

"Queen's English, please?" asked Nym, to which Harry and Kara nodded in agreement.

Clark chuckled for a moment, then went on to explain that the "extra ingredient" in Harry was a lot like his own, but not quite the same. He wasn't sure how that might happen, but considering at the time the shuttle was launched he had been completely unaware of the drones' existence, he could only assume someone else had found the shuttle and modified it. This led to his explaining how he had found Kara originally and why he and his friends had needed to send her away. Once again the girls were crying, Harry for his part kept claiming there was dust in his eyes, as Clark told them about the destruction of his Universe.

"So, the real you is dead?" asked Harry.

"Yeah," Clark answered truthfully. "Probably for a long time, but don't feel bad for him, okay? I know he died protecting the people he cared about and I know he would be happy Sunshine here survived and made some really good friends."

Clark went on to tell them about the basic powers Harry and Kara could expect to awaken over time. As he explained it, it was sunlight that granted them their powers and that the longer they were in the sunlight, the more power their bodies would store up. He also pointed out that he would be there to help them as much as possible, though they would probably need to keep his existence a secret. The three of them promised not to tell anyone, going so far as to make it a pinkie swear which brought another smile to Clark's face. That was when they got the final shock of the day.

"We promise as well," said a man's voice, causing everyone to turn and see Sirius and Remus appearing as if out of thin air. "In fact, we've got the perfect solution for this secret."

As Harry flew over the water below, he laughed at remember how shocked he and the others had been when Sirius and Remus showed up. In hindsight it was rather obvious that the two adults would have been keeping an eye on them and that they would have noticed the sudden appearance of a strange spaceship on their beach, but as children this had never occurred to them. All five of them had talked long into the night with Clark, learning everything they could about Harry and Kara's abilities, not to mention Clark's history. The fact that he had been a superhero, just like the ones in Harry's comic books, had thrilled the younger portion of the crowd, not to mention making Sirius a little giddy. There was also a long conversation regarding how to best hide the shuttle and a means of talking with Clark when they were away from it.

This was a simple problem to solve as the moment they mentioned it the shuttle vanished leaving them all standing on the beach with Clark's image still floating in front of them. A bit of discussion, not to mention Clark scanning everything in range, soon revealed that Harry's bracelet contained a pocket dimension into which the shuttle could vanish at a moment's notice. The bracelet also seemed to act as a conduit through which Clark's image could be projected. This discovery met with a sense of relief that their secret was well protected.

"When you are older, both of you," Clark finally said, "I want you to take the blue crystal you found in the shuttle someplace remote and isolated, like the Antarctic or the Amazonian rain forest. Bury it in the ground, not too deep, and then stand back."

"What will happen?" asked Remus.

"Nothing dangerous, I assure you," replied Clark. "It will use the materials around it to create a large Kryptonian structure, suitable for training in. Like I said, put it someplace impossible to get to by normal people. That way it will always be protected."

"There's a problem with that, Clark," interrupted Sirius. "Wizards and Witches can get to just about any place on the planet. We're going to need some really powerful wards setup around this place no matter where we put it."

"Maybe not," stated Clark with a smirk that reminded Remus just a bit too much like Harry's father when he had a prank in mind.

That night had been the beginning of Harry and Kara's training with Clark. At first it was just learning about Krypton's history, but that had eventually included learning the language and the technology. Clark had long since discovered the full Kryptonian knowledge archives stored within the shuttle and it did not take long for him to start passing that knowledge onto Harry and Kara. Nym joined in on most of their lessons, though as time passed she realized that it would be impossible to keep up with her two younger friends. Not because she didn't work hard at it, but because their Kryptonian abilities so far outmatched her own. Thankfully this did not become a source of jealousy, though it did cause a great deal of pouting over the years.

Shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday he had received his invitation to Hogwarts. As Sirius and Remus had been training Harry and Kara to use his magic almost as long as Clark had been teaching them about their other powers, the young duo felt attending a school so far away from their family to be rather silly. A week later when both he and Kara received invitations from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, Harry began to suspect something was amiss. His three teachers all agreed that something was wrong if Hogwarts would invite only Harry while Beauxbatons would invite them both.

Using his connections, Sirius quickly learned that there was a small group led by Albus Dumbledore that was attempting to gain control over Harry. According to his source, Kara's name had originally been listed along with Harry's on the school registry, but that once Albus realized the girl was Sirius' ward, he had stricken her name from the registry and destroyed her invitation. That of course was the final straw for Harry and his family, thus a rejection was returned to Hogwarts along with a warning that should Dumbledore continue to interfere with their family, legal avenues would be looked into in order to keep the old man away from Harry.

However the old man had not given up, going so far as to flood their home with invitations, many charmed with compulsion charms to force the issue. Dumbledore even went so far as to send Hagrid, an old friend of Sirius and Remus, in an attempt to persuade them to let Harry attend school at Hogwarts. Hagrid quickly changed his mind about the prospect once the gigantic man learned from the two Marauders the full truth behind Dumbledore's manipulations, he was less than pleased at being used in such a manner. Sirius' source at Hogwarts said it was quite humorous to see Hagrid turn in his resignation by throwing it in Dumbledore's face, and to prove the point she had included a copy of the memory so that they could all enjoy it. Sirius had immediately hired Hagrid to care for the many Black properties and the man couldn't be happier.

Eventually Sirius was forced to carry through with his threats and legal options had been sought to keep Dumbledore from harassing them. Sadly, Dumbledore had pulled out the "Boy-Who-Lived" card and waved it right in front of the Wizengamot and Press. Soon the whole of Great Britain was clamoring for Harry to attend Hogwarts, though no one seemed to care that he did not want to go there. Sirius even offered a compromise, stating that Harry would consider it if Kara was allowed to attend as well, but the old man was adamant in his stand that Kara would never be a student of Hogwarts. So one night Sirius packed them all up, sealed their London home, and they all moved to Saint Tropez on a semi-permanent basis.

It was over two years since they left England behind and Harry thought it was the best two years of his life yet. Not only had he learned some really amazing things from Clark, but he had also learned an astounding amount of magic from his private tutors. Right after they first moved he and Kara had hoped to attend Beauxbatons, but the level of press coverage he now received in the magical world thanks to Dumbledore's ongoing crusade to force Harry to attend Hogwarts had made him something of persona non grata at official schools. Sirius however had planned ahead and hired several of the best Non-Magical and Magical tutors in the world for Harry and Kara, seeing to it that they learned more in a year than others did in seven.

Their rapid rate of learning was helped by the fact that as Kryptonians their minds processed information much faster than a normal human's. With both of them having photographic memories, briefly scanning a book allowed them to remember it perfectly at any time. This combined with their amazing physical prowess and strength made them the perfect students, something Sirius and Remus encouraged as much as possible. To say the two adults were supportive would be putting it mildly. Harry often called them the "cheerleaders," at least until the day they both showed up in cheerleading outfits and shouted encouragements at them for an hour. After that Harry avoided using that word anywhere around either man for fear of a repeat of that performance.

On Harry and Kara's thirteenth birthday, since they did not know Kara's actual birthday they just used the day Harry had found her, they had begun coming fully into their Kryptonian abilities. Clark was away, having used Kara's shuttle to travel out beyond the Oort Cloud to scan for traces of this Universes' Krypton, so when Harry and Kara woke up one morning floating against the ceiling of his room, it took then several hours of experimentation before the discovered how to get down. This was quickly followed by super-speed and invulnerability, something Harry thought was "the coolest thing ever." By the time Clark returned to Earth he discovered two streaking blurs who seemed to take great delight in pranking their guardians by use of super-speed and flight. This of course led Clark to give them a longwinded speech as to the nature of responsibility, which was followed by Sirius and Remus doing the same.

Another discovery that year was the fact that both Harry and Kara were immune to many low level spells. Anything that might physically attack them, such as a stunner or a transfiguration, had no effect on them. Sadly they were still vulnerable to the effects of most other spells, so for example if Sirius created ropes to tie them up or transfigured their clothing into diamonds, they could still be captured. Clark related the knowledge that in the original Clark Kent's experience, all magic had affected him and that magical weapons had been able to pierce his skin, so their powers were already stronger than the original Kryptonian's had been. A quick knick of the finger with an enchanted dagger soon proved that although they were difficult to injure, it could still be done.

It was Christmas of Harry's thirteenth year when they discovered the last secret of their new lives. It wasn't a new superpower or even a neat new magical spell. No, it was something much darker than that. Just like with one of Harry's favorite comic books, the super-powered children discovered that with power comes responsibility.

They had been Christmas shopping with Nym and her mother in Paris when suddenly a man had jumped out of an alley in front of them. The man, a dirty and smelly example of what drugs could do to a person, had pulled a knife and threatened to kill them if they did not hand over all their money. Of course Harry and Kara had laughed at the man, quickly shoving him away and leading Andromeda in Tonks away, giving no further thought to the man what-so-ever. It was a mistake that haunted Harry even now. The man, even with his mind clouded by drugs, had enough skill with his knife that he was able to throw it at their backs as they walked away. Harry had heard the sound of the knife as it spun through the air, but had not known what the sound meant, so did not react quickly enough. In a a moment the knife found itself buried in Nym's left shoulder, causing the young woman to scream, a sound that burned itself into Harry's brain. Before Harry or Kara could attack the man, Andromeda had triggered their emergency Portkeys, returning them to the Black compound.

That had been the longest night of Harry's life, waiting for the Healer to tell them if Nym was going to be all right. The image of a now nineteen year-old Nym laying on the ground, bleeding, floated before Harry's eyes as he listened to Kara crying as Sirius held her did not help the young boy's mood any. Several people had tried to talk to him, but their words seemed to fall on deaf ears as Harry stood looking out the window at the steel grey winter sea. It was nearly one in the morning, the twenty-fifth of December when the Healer finally walked out of Nym's room with a smile on his face and Harry finally began to listen again.

"How is she?" asked Ted, Nym's father.

"Oh she's fine," replied the Healer with a smile. "I would have been out an hour ago to tell you that but she was trying to talk me into giving her a magical tattoo to hide her scar. When I explained to her that there would be no scar due to the nature of the treatment, she then tried to convince me to give her the tattoo anyway and to tell her mother that it was indeed to hide a scar. Obviously, I did not give her a tattoo. I'm a healer, not a tattoo artist."

Everyone laughed at that statement, everyone except Andromeda who stalked off to have a few words with her daughter as Sirius shook the Healers hand. "Thank you, Healer McCoy. I don't know what any of us would have done if we lost that young lady in there."

"Think nothing of it, Sirius," assured Healer McCoy. "The wound was a lot worse looking than it really was. A few spells here and a few potions there and she's as good as new. After all, I'm a Healer, not some barbaric Muggle physician."

"And thank God for that," responded almost everyone in the room, gaining a chuckle from the man.

After the Healer was gone and everyone finally settled in for the night, Harry and Kara snuck into Nym's room to check on their sister figure. Nym looked a little pale, but otherwise just fine. Seeing the two scared children in her doorway, Nym opened her arms and they rushed forward to hug her. Soon they were all cuddled up under the sheets, Kara having fallen asleep due to the late hour, but Harry and Nym had continued to talk.

"This is all my fault," growled Harry through clenched teeth. "If I had just done something more, you wouldn't have been hurt."

"Bollocks!" replied Nym. "It wasn't you that threw that knife, and it sure wasn't you that buried the thing hilt deep in my back. In fact, you were the one that tried to protect us. Not your fault the crazy bugger tried to do me in."

"But I heard the knife coming at you," protested Harry. "I should have done something!"

"I heard it too, you know," interrupted Kara, who it seemed was not nearly as asleep as they had previously thought. "I heard it and I ignored it, just like you did, because I didn't recognize the danger the sound represented. I'll remember for next time and I know you will as well."

"But what if we're not there the next time," Harry blurted out. "You could get killed or something while we're not there!"

"This isn't about today, is it?" asked Nym. "At least it's not all about today. This is about me being in the Auror training program, isn't it?"

Harry refused to look up at the older girl, mumbling, "S'not it at all. Don't know what you're talking about."

"Umm, I call bollocks this time," Kara said with a smirk. "You're as worried as I am about this, but unlike me, you think you have to be there all the time to protect her. Nym can handle herself, Harry. You should know, you helped train her in hand-to-hand. She's almost as good at you when it comes to the Kryptonian forms of fighting, and she kicks your arse when it comes to dueling. So, go find your stiff upper lip, because this is happening, whether you like it or not."

"Yeah!" added Nym with a playful smile. "What she said!"

Harry just rolled his eyes and crawled out of bed heading for the door, grumbling all the way. "My sister is addicted to danger and Kara thinks it's cool. I'm doomed."

"Quit your whining," Nym said as she tossed a pillow at the back of his head. "Now the both of you get off to bed. I'm sure Kara needs her sleep and she's never going to get it till she's naked in your bed."

"Gawd, Nym!" whined Harry. "You make it sound so perverted! We're just sleeping."

"For now," added Kara in a whisper.

"You know I would never take advantage of Kara like that," he continued to protest.

"No matter how much she might want you to," supplied Nym.

"Yeah," grumbled Kara.

Harry just blushed and walked out of the room, leaving the two girls giggling behind him. Kara sharing his bed every night was the worst kept secret in the world. No one said anything about it outright, but passing conversations had made it clear that certain activities were not allowed until they were at least sixteen. Even with that said, two days later Harry had found a box of Magical condoms in his nightstand, guaranteed to be one hundred percent effective while being completely undetectable during the act. That wouldn't have been an issue if he hadn't been twelve at the time. Obviously Sirius had been pranked mercilessly for a week as retaliation, especially when Kara wanted to know what a condom was and what act it would be undetectable during.

That led them to today, and Harry flying out over the sea, watching the sun go down under the horizon. Today Harry was fourteen years-old, as was Kara, and he was starting to think that sharing a bed with a girl as lovely as her was not something he should be doing anymore. The fact that she still crawled into his bed nightly in nothing but the skin God gave her was enough to cause any teen boy's head to explode, no pun intended. Add to that the fact that she was growing to be a very beautiful woman and Harry was finding it harder by the day to lay there in bed and not explode, literally and figuratively. Not to mention the fact that he was now having dreams about her that were definitely not the type of dreams you had about someone that was raised as your sister, or at least a close cousin.

"I'm so confused," Harry said to himself as he floated several meters above the surface of the water via his own abilities. "I know we're not related, but should I be having these types of thought about Kara?"

Suddenly a familiar set of arms wrapped around his waist while a someone pressed themselves against his back. Harry knew who it was. Spending every day and every night with someone generally gave you a pretty good idea of who was hugging you, even if it was while flying unaided over the sea.

"I think you're forgetting about the other question you should be asking yourself," Kara said from behind him.

"What question is that?" he asked as he turned around in her arms and hugged her back.

Kara smiled up at him for a moment, then laid her head on his shoulder. "You should be asking if she has the same type of thoughts about you."

"And does she?" Harry asked, his heart now beating faster than humanly possible.

"You better believe it, Mister," replied Kara, reaching up and pulling his head down for a kiss.

As kisses go, it was not the that high up on the list of first time kisses, but it was fairly amazing for them. They would eventually decide to keep their new relationship private, for now. It was also agreed upon that they were far too young to go fooling around. The fact that Harry already slept with a naked Kara each night took some of the excitement out of the situation, but that was not to say he wasn't overjoyed that she wanted to be his girlfriend. Now it was just a matter of time until they were older and then maybe, just maybe, they could be something even more together.

* * *

_AN:_

_Here we go, the final part of the introduction and the longest so far. I debated making it all one chapter, but that would have made it all way too long. So, I split it three ways and tweaked as I saw fit. _

_Some fast comments. _

_Kara and Harry are not related, period, and I never intended to give the impression that they were. Remember, Kara never even met Clark, so there is no emotional attachment there for her. _

_Tonks is not going to be the third member of a harem, though she will have a role to play later in the story that will go beyond being just an Auror. _

_The fate of the Dursleys will be explained later on, so don't worry about that. _

_No, I don't plan on putting graphic lemons in this story as seems to be the trend in HP/DC crossovers recently, but that doesn't mean I won't sneak in a lime of just some plain old fashioned perverted humor. Remember, I base most of the relationships in my stories on my personal experiences in life. Sadly, still never had a harem, but I'm hopeful!_

_Anyway, that's about it for now. You've got three chapters here, three still on my hard drive, and multiple for my other story. Next chapter we'll be fully up to "current" events for the 4th year and see how Harry and Kara react to the situation._

_Now, go read and I'll post again when I see fit._

_Chris :)_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Complications**

**_Earth 7/Beta _**

**_1 November, 1994_**

**_Saint-Tropez, France_**

**_Black Family Compound_**

* * *

Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Harry had just woken up to the sound of several people arguing downstairs. That was the curse of having super-sensitive hearing, you couldn't sleep through even a small row. Oddly, Harry couldn't understand a word that was being said, meaning someone down there had used the _Muffliato_ charm to prevent Kara and him from knowing what was going on.

"Now that's just not kosher," mumbled Harry as he gently shook Kara to wake her up. "Up and at 'em, Sunshine. There's something going on downstairs and I want to know what it is."

"I know," huffed Kara, sitting up and stretching, a sight that Harry found almost hypnotizing. "I heard them the same time you did. Let me go put something on and I'll meet you at the top of the stairs."

Harry nodded, watching as a naked Kara got out of bed and vanished in a blur of super-speed. About the time Kara started "maturing" she had also taken to using her super-speed to avoid being seen unclothed by anyone other than Harry. When he finally got the courage to ask her why, about a week after they decided to start dating, Kara told him flatly that she didn't care if he saw her naked because she wanted to be with him for the rest of his life. While she might go topless on the beach, no one else was ever going to see her naked. Harry rather liked the idea that she was his and he was hers, it wasn't as if he had ever thought about being with anyone else. From the moment he first saw her, all those years ago, Harry had known they would never be separated and he was good with that.

In a flash he was out of bed, washed up, and dressed, just in time to step out his door and see Kara standing there in front of him. While Harry had taken to wearing primarily black clothing with maybe silver or gold accents, Kara went for bright colors. As usual she was wearing one of the outfits she designed and made herself. In this case it was a midriff baring white sweater, a navy blue pleated skirt that barely reached mid-thigh, a pair of white thigh high socks, and black patent leather Mary Janes with red bowes on the strap and a two inch heel. Harry thought the shoes were the best bit, not because he had a shoe fetish, but because Kara was pushing as hard as she could to get Sirius to allow her to wear heels and these were he current compromise with him.

_"That and I just love how they make her legs look,"_ he thought to himself as he returned his gaze to her face. "Nice outfit. New design?"

"Yeah," she replied with a smile. "Andromeda took Nym and I to see the fall Versace show, and I loved some of his ideas. The skirts were way more daring than this one, but I know Sirius would throw a tantrum if I showed up in anything shorter than this."

"That and I wouldn't be able to stand up straight for an hour," Harry muttered.

"You say something, Harry?" Kara asked with the most innocent smile she could muster.

Harry just sighed and offered her his hand as they made their way downstairs. "You heard me, Sunshine. I swear you're trying to kill me with these designs of yours."

"I just don't want you to forget I'm a girl," Kara teased with a little pout thrown in for good measure.

Harry just sighed, stopping halfway down the stairs and turning to face her. "Kara, I've shared a bed with you every night for the last six years. Six years in which the most you've ever worn to bed is a pair of socks because you didn't want your feet to get cold. So I think it's safe to say that I am one hundred percent certain you're a girl. Probably the most beautiful girl on the planet, but I'm only fourteen and in no rush to grow up. You understand?"

Kara had the decency to at least blush as he said this to her, then leaned forward and kissed his cheek, causing him to blush as well. "I understand and thank you for the complement. Now, come on before we miss whatever is going on."

That said, Kara drug Harry the rest of the way down the stairs and towards the constant buzzing that indicated someone was trying to hide something from them. When they found the source, Sirius' private den, Harry instantly noticed the energy patterns around it that indicated a locking and detection spell had been used on it. That was one of the abilities that he had gained over the last summer, the ability to see magic. Clark had told them they would eventually gain X-ray, telescopic, and microscopic vision, but it seemed Harry's magical abilities had somehow interacted with those abilities to form something new. Harry called the ability Mage sight, but Kara called it Energy vision. Kara had eventually developed a weaker version of the ability, but Harry's version was hundreds of times better.

"Hold on," he cautioned, pulling her back from the door. "Whomever is in there doesn't want us barging in. I don't recognize the Magical signature, so it wasn't Sirius or Remus. Best to use X-ray vision for now, at least to get an idea of what's going on."

"Gotcha," agree Kara as they both engaged their eyes.

They could see four people in the room. Three people were instantly recognizable from their skeletal structure as Sirius, Remus, and Nym. However the third man was someone they had never met before. He was about Remus' height and looked to have led a hard life from the number of broken bones he had suffered. They couldn't get too many other details as they could only currently see the man's skeleton, but they could tell from the way he and the others were flinging their arms around that the discussion was definitely a heated one. They also noticed that Nym kept motioning behind her back to the window behind her.

"Nym wants us to look in the window," stated Kara, to which Harry nodded in agreement.

Both teens super-sped out of the house and around to the window of Sirius' den. Harry instantly realized why Nym had been motioning to the window as it was clear no detection or locking spells had been cast on it. The window was barely open and from the looks of it, the spell being cast to disguise the conversation happening inside cast a radius that extended just beyond it, so by sitting directly under the window they would be able to hear everything being said inside. Pulling Kara down bellow the window, Harry leaned back and listened to what was being said.

"It doesn't matter what you want, Black!" shouted the stranger. "The boy must compete in the competition or else forfeit his magic when the Goblet declares him in violation of the Magical contract!"

"Bollocks!" roared Sirius. "How the bloody hell can Harry be held accountable for this? Answer me that, Snape! He's not stepped foot in England since he was eleven bloody years-old! None of us have, save Nym, and I know for a fact she wouldn't have placed his name in for this thrice damned meat grinder your precious Headmaster calls a competition!"

"I don't know how Potter managed it, Black," replied the man, nearly spitting out Harry and Sirius' last names. "The point is he did, and he's now responsible for paying for his poor judgement!"

Harry heard a chair hit the wall and then the sound of flesh hitting flesh. In a flash he was inside the room pulling Sirius off the fallen form of their rude guest. Harry glanced at the man for a second, he was tall with a pale complexion, black eyes, a hooked nose, and long greasy black hair. Needless to say, he did not make a good first impression on Harry or Kara if her sneer while looking at the man was any indication. Whatever her feeling about him, she managed to snatch the man's wand from his hand when he drew it and attempted to cast a spell at Harry and Sirius. Kara didn't even blink as she threw the wand out the window with enough force that it broke the sound barrier before vanishing from sight.

"You will not attack MY Harry, or Sirius!" she roared, only slightly quieter than an exploding volcano. "Do you understand me?"

"You'll pay for that, wench!" Snape roared right back, trying to get up only to be stopped when he was snatched up off the ground by Harry. Harry held the now slightly frightened man in the air by the front of his robes and glared at him so hard you could almost see electricity flying between them.

"You really might want to rethink calling Kara names in front of me," hissed Harry in a whisper, but a whisper that was so filled with anger that it seemed to echo around the room. "No one speaks to her like that, so I think you had best rethink your attitude right fast! Now, who are you, what do you want, and why shouldn't I call the local Constabulary to have you arrested for attempting to attack two members of my family?"

"Potter," hissed the shallow skinned man. "Just as full of yourself as your father and you know full well why I'm here, don't act like you don't. You entered your name in the Goblet of Fire to be a competitor in the Triwizard Tournament and I'm here to return you to Hogwarts to make sure you do. Now, put me down!"

"When did Harry supposedly enter this tournament?" asked Kara, now standing next to a smirking Nym. "Oh, Harry will put you down when you stop being a threat to us and answer our questions, so you might want to start doing that, Snipe."

"I'd listen to the girl if I were you, 'Snipe,'" advised Sirius, smirking at the unintentional new nickname. "Harry has a thing about people threatening those he cares about."

"Too, true," added Remus. "Not to mention he really dislikes it when people are rude to Kara, so you might want to change your attitude, and quickly."

Snape looked down, finally realizing that Harry was holding him a good foot off the ground with only one arm. It was a feat that a boy his age shouldn't have been able to accomplish, but it was happening. Snape took a closer look at the boy holding him up and grimaced. It wasn't that Harry was ugly, far from it, but he looked so damned much like his father that Snape couldn't stop his blood from starting to boil. The fact a mere fourteen year-old boy should be almost two meters tall and have shoulders that broad just added insult to injury for the bitter potions master. Yet his eyes, those same emerald green eyes that his mother had, they tore at Snape's heart and conscious reminding him of the part he played in her death. The fact Harry didn't even seem to notice that he was holding a fully grown man a foot in the air with one arm was the final straw causing Snape to realize that now might not be the best time to antagonize the boy.

"Fine," he finally hissed. "My name is Severus Snape, not Snipe, Potions Master for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Last night Mr. Potter's name came out of the Goblet of Fire, an extremely powerful magical artifact used to choose contestants to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. The Tournament is supposed to be a competition between the three major schools of Europe, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang, as a means of fostering better relations between the schools."

"I'm aware of what the Triwizard Tournament is," growled Harry. "We studied it in Magical History. The Tournament was eventually banned in all three countries due to the shockingly high loss of life that normally took place during it. The issue came to a head when, during the last tournament, all three competitors were killed along with over half the spectators that were present. Now you tell me that it is being held again? What damned suicidal idiot decided that was a good idea?"

"Albus Dumbledore," answered Snape, feeling a little intimidated by Harry's behavior. "He's been working on this for the past three years as a means of improving international cooperation and as a means of redeeming himself in the eyes of the ICW."

Almost everyone in the room groaned, save Harry, at the mention of Dumbledore's name. Sirius just groaned, shaking his head as he walked over to his liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of fire whiskey along with several shot glasses. Harry was standing, frozen in place, and Snape could see the boy's mind was running out of control with too many thoughts to focus. He was tempted to attempt sneaking a look at what Harry was thinking, but Harry closed his eyes before Snape could make the attempt. Meanwhile Sirius was pouring shots of fire whisky and handing them to Remus and Nym. Holding two glasses in his hand, Sirius walked over to Kara and handed them to her before resting a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Put him down Harry," Sirius said with a note of finality. "If Dumbledore is involved in this, Snape is as much a pawn as everyone else."

Harry sighed, then lowered Snape back down to his feet. Releasing him, Harry walked over to the window and stared out at the sea beyond the compound wall. Kara walked over and took his hand, resting her head on his shoulder as Sirius passed out glasses of fire whiskey to everyone, including Harry and Kara. Snape was rather surprised by the sudden change in mood, but accepted the fire whiskey if only to help with his nerves after what Harry had done.

"You have to understand, Severus," began Remus, "that for the last several years, we've been fighting, in one form or another, against Albus' attempts at controlling Harry."

Sirius nodded, pouring himself a second glass of whiskey after downing the first one. "That old bastard has done everything in his power to separate us. He even denied Kara, my adopted daughter and heir, her rightful place at Hogwarts in an attempt to isolate Harry from anyone that cared about him. Then there were the thousands, and I really do mean thousands, of invitations for Harry to attend Hogwarts, each with a compulsion charm on them trying to force the issue."

"Don't forget the bit where he spread so many rumors about Harry to the press that Beauxbatons refused to take him," added Nym. "What did they say... Oh yes, that having Harry there 'would be a disrupting influence on the other students.' Same story was repeated in every school Sirius looked at until he had to hire private tutors for Kara and Harry both."

"Now this," stated Harry in an emotionless voice. "I am to assume that this is something I cannot avoid?"

"No," Snape answered quietly, not liking one bit what he was hearing. "I personally checked the rules last night and it clearly says that a student's name coming out of the Goblet indicates that a magical and binding contract is in effect until the end of the final event. The student must either compete to the best of his abilities, or their magic is forfeit."

"My magic?" asked Harry. "Just my magic, or my life? These old magical contracts were usually very black and white."

Snape finished off his whiskey, holding the glass out for a refill as he answered. "You're right. The contract states you loose your magic, but the old contracts enforced their terms with harsh methods. The loss of your magic would probably be due to the contract killing you in a most horrible and painful manner, as warning to others that might think to do the same. You really didn't put your name in the Goblet, did you?"

"No," was Harry's simple reply. "Honestly, I never planned on stepping foot in England again until after Dumbledore was dead and buried by ten years. Now this, I am forced to return and compete in a competition that has killed almost everyone that has ever taken part in it. The alternative being a painful death the moment the Goblet decides I am in violation of a contract I did not enter into willingly."

Snape was thinking, actually he was doing more than thinking, he was having an epiphany. Harry Potter was not James Potter, nor was he Lily Evans-Potter. No, this young man was his own person. A person that Snape suddenly thought he might like to learn more about.

"I'm sorry, Mister Potter," Snape said as he bowed his head. "I let an old grudge cloud my judgement and that has led us to this situation."

"Please, call me Harry?" asked the young man as he turned back to face the room with a sad smile on his face. "I love my parents, but I am not them. I'm just Harry until I earn my own name in the world. Whether that name be Potter, Black, or something else I don't know, but for now I'm just Harry."

"You're not just Harry," said the girl at his side. "You're MY Harry."

"And that's all I need to be, for now," replied Harry, kissing the top of her head. "Unfortunately, right now we have problems that we must deal with."

Harry walked over to the large leather couch Sirius had against the wall of the room and sat down, pulling Kara down next to him and wrapping an arm around her. Kara quickly kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs under herself, resting her head on his shoulder. Snape was a little surprised at how comfortable the two teens seemed to be, especially when Nym sat down on Harry's other side and took his free hand in hers. Obviously there was a very close family structure at play here, something that Snape was a bit confused by considering Sirius Black was the head of said family.

"What's your role in all this, Nym?" Harry asked the young Auror Trainee.

Nym sighed, then rested her head on Harry's other shoulder before speaking. "When the Minister heard that you were going to be competing in the tournament, he immediately started trying to find ways to spin the story to make himself look good. He knew I was related to Sirius and decided I should accompany Professor Snape here to retrieve you. Funny thing is, I don't think he even knew I existed, or that I even knew you until this morning when I got my orders."

"Figures," Sirius grunted, now working on his third glass of whiskey. "Fudge has always been the type to use people in order to make himself look good. What with all the times he's tried to force us back to England, this is just too good an opportunity to pass up. What surprises me is that he didn't come himself or send one of his proven lapdogs to do it."

"That might have to do with his last trip to France," supplied Snape with a smirk. "As I understand it he managed to call the French Minister of Magic a 'frog' several times before he realized the man could speak English. Then there is the fact he spent a great deal of time leering at the French Minister's wife and daughters, Veela, or so I'm told. That did not sit well with the French Minister and has led to Fudge not being very welcome in this country."

"Oh yes, Minister Delacour would not be happy about that at all," stated Remus. "He is most protective of his wife and daughters, especially the youngest."

"Gabriele Delacour," added Kara. "I met her last year at a fashion show Andromeda took me to. She's definitely a Veela and even though she was eleven at the time, she was remarkably beautiful."

"All Veela are beautiful," Sirius said with a slight chuckle. "The perfect mix of beauty, brains, and raw power. I'd rather face a herd of trolls than one pissed off Veela."

"Especially after the last one you pissed off," Remus added. "She threatened to burn off your little friend, didn't she?"

Sirius coughed several times, trying to hide his embarrassment before continuing. "That's besides the point, Remus. The French Minister's displeasure with Fudge is probably the only reason the little snot rag isn't here right now. Instead he sends Nym, probably thinking that if the French Minister was to become displeased with her presence, she would be the one to pay the price and not him."

"Most likely true, Black," Snape agreed. "Dumbledore was most displeased to find out that our dear Minister was sending someone besides myself to retrieve young Mister Potter, but there was little he could do about it considering he no longer holds as much political power as he once did. To be very honest, after the events of two years ago I'm surprised he even still has a job."

"What happened two years ago?" asked Remus.

Snape sighed, "The youngest Weasley child, a young girl by the name of Ginny, went missing and someone in the school claimed she had been taken into the 'Chamber of Secrets.' Several students claimed to have seen her enter a secret passage in a girl's bathroom, but nothing anyone tried could open it again. Several hours later there was a massive blast of magic from deep under the school and Dumbledore declared the girl was dead before sealing the bathroom and forbidding anyone from entering it ever again."

"That poor girl," whispered Remus. "Not to mention Arthur and Molly, they must have been devastated."

Snape nodded, saying, "Arthur took it the worst, becoming a shell of his former self. Molly on the other hand took to trying to smother her children even more so than before. Her three youngest took it hard as well, convinced they could have done something."

Harry, who for the last few minutes had been sitting with his eyes closed, deep in thought, finally opened his eyes and looked directly at Snape, asking, "What are the chances that Dumbledore is the one that put my name in the Goblet?"

Snape thought about that for a few moments, sipping on his whiskey as he did before finally speaking. "The chances are fifty-fifty, I would think. He did seem to be surprised when your name came out of the Goblet, but that could have been an act. However, after the Champions had been dismissed I watched him casting numerous diagnostic spells on the Goblet in an attempt to find out what had happened. Several times I heard him muttering to himself, 'not like this' and 'what are you up to.' As I'm sure he was unaware of my presence, his behavior leads me to believe he was not responsible. Again that could be just an act he was putting on for the benefit of anyone watching him, so I cannot say for sure."

"And if I do return with you, what then?" Harry asked, seemingly accepting what Snape had just said.

"Well, you would be expected to participate in the three challenges," replied Snape. "As you are the youngest Champion, I would think you would want to attend classes with your year group to help you prepare yourself. You would also most likely be required to stay with one of the four houses at Hogwarts, as you are not a student of any school. There is also a ball scheduled for the winter holidays that you will be required to attend."

"Classes will not be an issue," stated Kara with a smirk. "As Harry and I took our OWLs this last spring, we are now studying to take our NEWT's."

"How is that possible?" asked Snape, confused how two fourteen year old children could have possibly already taken their OWLs, let alone be studying for NEWTs. "It takes a special dispensation from the International Confederation of Wizards for someone so young to take the tests."

"A dispensation that both Kara and Harry received after three independent observers noticed that they were already studying NEWT level material, even before taking their OWLs," answered Remus. "Kara and Harry both received perfect marks on their tests, getting nine Outstanding each."

"Oh my," whispered Snape, looking at the two young teens with a glimmer of respect. He was rather surprised that the girl, Kara, had done so well as she reminded him of several young girls in his classes that spent more time focusing on makeup and boys rather than on their studies. "A remarkable accomplishment for both of you. What were your elective tests in?"

"Ancient Runes and Arithmancy," answered Kara with a smile. "Harry wanted to take the other six available tests as well, but they were all just so much fluff that we eventually decided against it."

"That and reviewing for the added classes was cutting into the time we needed to finish our A-levels," continued Harry. "We've tried to maintain a fairly good mix of Non-Magical and Magical education. When we were offered the chance to test early for them, we jumped at the chance. However due to the timeframe we were looking at, reviewing for so many tests all at the same time demanded we cut out the unimportant and focus solely on those classes that would best help us in the future."

"A-Levels and OWLs," groaned Snape, "at the same bloody time? You must be either geniuses, or slightly mad. I at least waited a year after I graduated from Hogwarts before I attempted my A-Levels, even then I barely had time to prepare for them."

Sirius snickered from his seat, now more than a little tipsy from all the whiskey he had drank. "Many a night I watched these two studying till the sun rose with nothing but black coffee and each other to keep them going. I tried to help, we all did, in the end it was all on them. When it was all over and the last test taken, they slept for two days straight."

"Was rather dangerous to even attempt waking them," added Remus. "Just stepping in their room was cause for getting hit in the head with a pillow or a hex, depending on whether they could reach their wands at the time."

Harry and Kara were now suitably embarrassed, but Nym had not had her turn to tease them. "Yep, was cute though to see them curled up together, dead to the world and yet still casting hexes like a pro."

"NYM!" both young teens shrieked, getting a laugh out of everyone, including a snicker from Snape.

"Hey, least I didn't tell them about Kara sucking YOUR thumb for most of the second day," replied the older girl, who immediately ran off with Harry and Kara in hot pursuit.

"He's not like I expected," Snape said after a few moments.

Sirius nodded, suddenly completely sober. "He had a really rough first few years. Those damed Dursleys almost killed him. If it wasn't for good fortune smiling down on him, Harry probably would have died on his birthday that year. As it is, he still sometimes withdraws from the world and those around him in an attempt to keep himself from being hurt. Kara is the one that pulls him out of it most of the time."

Remus nodded in agreement as he picked up the story. "After the Dursleys nearly killed him, Harry and Kara were in the hospital together for several days. As they shared a room, Kara heard Harry having the most horrible nightmares whenever he fell asleep. After Sirius gained custody of both of them, Kara took it upon herself to solve that problem. Claiming that she was afraid of the dark, she snuck into his room and stayed with him."

"I was a little leery of letting a boy and a girl share a bed, even at their age," Sirius said as he picked the story up again. "I'm a prankster and a bit of a womanizer, or at least I was, but I was raised in the old traditions that a boy and girl **did not** share a bed together until they were married. I tried to take Kara back to her bed the second night she snuck into Harry's room."

Sirius paused for a moment, wiping a hand across his face, then speaking softly. "It was bloody horrible, I tell you. I had only just gotten Kara back into her own bed when I heard the first screams. I rushed into Harry's room and there he was, thrashing about and screaming as if Lucifer himself were roasting him in the pits of Hell. I did everything I could to calm him, or even wake him, but the nightmare had such a tight hold on him that he refused to wake."

From under his desk Sirius pulled one of the whiskey glasses that everyone thought he had drank earlier, downing it in one go as tears filled his eyes. "I hope you never know what it is like to be so helpless when your child is suffering, I truly do, because my heart shattered that night. I have never felt like such a failure as I watched Harry thrash about on his bed. Then, just as I was about to cast a stunner on him in the hopes that it would make the screams stop, in walked Kara."

"She walked right over to his bed and crawled in beside him, despite him thrashing about like a man possessed," here Sirius paused and gave out a single bitter bark of laughter. "She wrapped her arms around him and he instantly stopped screaming and thrashing about. Then, with eyes older than a child should ever have, Kara looked up at me with the saddest little smile and said, 'now do you understand?' And I did. I knew then that she was never afraid of the dark. They've shared a bed every night since, though no one except Tonks comes out and admits they know about it."

"He still has nightmares?" asked Snape, remembering his own childhood and the nightmares he still sometimes experienced.

"No, thank God," answered Remus. "The nightmares stopped after about two years. One of the teachers at his school was also a child psychologist and she used to talk to him a lot. I'm not sure if he ever did figure out that all those afternoons he spent grading his classmates' papers with her were just a cover story for therapy sessions. Whether he did or not, he told her things that made even her, a trained professional, want to find the Dursleys and kill them. Due to doctor patient confidentiality she never told us what he told her, but it was bad enough that she started having nightmares about it as well. That's when she had to step away from the case, for her own health."

"I think she retired after that," Sirius said a moment later. "That was the first summer we came here, and it was also the summer Harry met his new therapist. Harry and Clark spent hours talking alone about Harry's past. Clark suggested finding healthy ways to vent all the negatives emotions that he had been suppressing for so long. Kid was at a loss as to what to do for a while, but then he discovered he had a knack for playing guitar, so much so that I bought him his first one and he played it till his fingers bled."

Remus nodded, finally taking a sip from the glass of whiskey he had been holding for the last hour. "I healed his fingers up and warned him that until he developed calluses on them, he needed to be careful. Two days later I healed his fingers again, then four days after that, and again six days later. By then he had the calluses, and he didn't need us to heal him anymore. He practiced as if his life depended on it, or maybe his soul. Whatever the case, by the end of that summer he was writing his own music."

"Damned angry stuff it was too," added Sirius. "Not every day you hear a nine year-old boy singing about how he wants to set fire to someones house to make them stop hurting him. He must have written dozens of songs like that before he started writing the sad ones. I still cry when I remember those songs. Heartbreaking, every single one of them."

"Then Kara stepped in and solved the problem again," Remus said with a smile. "She asked Harry to write a song for her, a happy song. He spent two weeks trying to write a song that would make her smile, never satisfied that what he had created was good enough. When she finally demanded to hear what he had written for her, Harry just about hid in embarrassment."

"A little known fact about Harry is that while he can play the guitar as if it was part of him, he can't sing to save his life," stated Sirius with a playful smirk on his face. "Poor little Kara, she sat there smiling the entire time he was singing to her with the most beautiful smile on her face I had ever seen, a perfect angel. The melody he created for her is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard, but the boys voice could shatter glass and scare cats at two kilometers. When he was done she hugged him and told him it was beautiful. He plays and sings for her any time she asks, but only for her. Harry's not stupid, he knows his voice sounds like shite, but if that girl asked him to pull down the moon and hand it to her, he would in a second."

"Sounds like she's good for him," Snape said once Sirius stopped speaking.

"They are good for each other," agreed Remus. "Don't be fooled, Kara has her own issues. She lost both her parents and was forced to leave her homeland. Things should have been looking up for her when one of her relatives took custody of her, but then he was killed in an accident. That's when Harry found her wandering in the forest, the night he was beaten nearly to death by Marge Dursley. Kara is nowhere as bad as Harry, but she has her issues as well."

"She's terrified of losing someone again?" asked Snape.

Remus and Sirius both nodded in agreement, with Sirius saying, "This bloody Tournament is going to be hell on both of them, but I think Kara will suffer the worst due to her fears, especially if Dumbledore tries to force Harry to come alone."

"Maybe not," replied Snape with a devious smirk. "I read those rules backwards and forwards last night. Nowhere in them does it state that Harry has to subject himself to Dumbledore's control. In point of fact, it states that each Champions' school must supply living arrangements for their students. It then goes on to state that no faculty member of any of the schools may aid their Champion in any way, but implies that they must still be present in case of emergency."

Remus looked thoughtful as Snape was speaking, before finally asking, "And which school was Harry entered under?"

"That's the thing," replied Snape, his smirk looking even more devious, "Harry's name had no school name attached to it, meaning any of the schools could claim him."

"Or a separate school altogether," Sirius continued. "So, say for example, Harry was to arrive with a fellow student and faculty member of the Kryptonian School for Advanced Education and Magic, no one could say a damned thing about it, including Dumbledore?"

"Exactly," Snape agreed. "Of course you would have to be able to show that such a school truly existed and then supply said faculty member along with suitable living quarters. Something that would be rather difficult to accomplish in the seventy-two hours I have remaining before I must return with Harry to the school."

Sirius suddenly went pale, taking the last gulp of whiskey out of his remaining glass. Snape was slightly confused when Remus started laughing at Sirius' discomfort. It took a few moments, but both men seemed to get themselves back under control enough to explain what was going on.

"I can get the paperwork," stated Sirius with a look of defeat. "Unfortunately it will mean asking the one person in the world that scares the living hell out of me."

"Oh?" asked Snape, one of his eyebrows now arching up towards his hairline. "Who could scare you that badly. You're Sirius Black, Marauder and Head of House Black."

Remus was again laughing by this point as Sirius grimaced and poured himself another glass of whiskey before answering. "Her name is Angelique D'Angelo. Head of the French Department of Magical Education."

"The very same Veela that threatened to burn his willy off after he accidentally stood her up for a date!" Remus finally let out, before sinking to the floor and rolling around as he laughed.

That was the scene Harry and the girls walked back in on a moment later, causing him to ask, "What did we miss? Did Sirius do something stupid again?"

"Oh God," groaned Sirius, downing his whiskey as Snape finally lost control of his stoic demeanor and started laughing.

The next morning, at least after Remus managed to pull Sirius out of bed and pour a hangover cure down his throat, Sirius had immediately cleaned himself up and headed off to Paris to start their plan rolling. For his part, Snape watched as Harry and Kara resumed their studies, even going so far as to answer several questions they had regarding a potion they were studying for their NEWT course. He was happily surprised to see that not only did they both seem to grasp the concepts he explained, they also seemed instantly to be able to apply the new information to what they were doing.

_"Now if only my regular students could be this attentive,"_ thought Snape as he left the two students to complete their assignment.

Entering the kitchen, looking for some tea or at the least a cup of coffee, Snape saw Remus sitting at the table reading over several papers that looked to be assignments that Harry and Kara had completed. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to ask the one question he had never gotten to the previous night. Grabbing a clean tea mug from the pile of them that was sitting on the counter, he took a seat across from the one Marauder he had at least been able to tolerate in school. Remus just looked up at him as Snape poured himself some tea and then finished marking the two papers he was working on before speaking.

"I already know what you want to ask," Remus said as he cleaned up the papers, putting them into a briefcase. "It's the same question I asked when Sirius tracked me down after he first took custody of Harry and Kara."

"Please, enlighten me then as to what you think I want to ask you?"

Refilling his mug with, Remus snorted at Snape's caustic nature. "You want to know what happened to the Dursleys, just like I did. It's written all over your face, even if you try to hide it. The wolf in me can sense it, the need to punish those that have injured a member of the pack. Believe me, I feel it strongly even now all these years later, but back then I could barely keep myself from killing them for what they did to Harry."

Forcing himself to not say something snide, Snape asked, "Was it really that bad?"

"Marge Dursley damned near killed Harry, then tried to hide the fact by paying her nine year old nephew to drag Harry's body off into the woods," replied Remus. "Later, after she and the Dursleys were all taken into custody, she admitted she had hoped Harry would die and felt it was all he deserved. Under truth serum Vernon and Petunia Dursley admitted that they knew Marge would most likely injure and possibly kill the boy while he was in her care, something they counted on in fact. What they hadn't counted on was Marge sexually molesting their son the night after Harry was left in the woods, or the fact she would break the boy's neck in a drunken rage afterwards."

"Merlin," swore Snape, his mug of tea forgotten as he listened to Remus speak. "Was the woman insane?"

"Probably," agreed Remus. "As it turned out later, she had a history of animal cruelty charges against her and several reports of public misconduct due to drinking. When Vernon and Petunia returned home they found her passed out in the kitchen, she had been drinking non-stop since that first night. While Vernon was trying to wake her up, Petunia went looking for Dudley. Evidently when she found his body in Marge's room, he had been dead at that point for several days, she snapped and attacked Marge. It was the noise of her screaming combined with Marge's dog, Ripper, barking that had the neighbor's calling the police. Dumbledore had cast several powerful wards around the blasted house to prevent Auror's from ever finding the place, but the Non-Magical Police found it rather easily."

Remus stared down into his mug for a moment before he continued. "By the time the Auror's figured out where the Dursley's were at, Dumbledore was already trying to memory charm everyone that knew what had happened. Thankfully he had been stopped before he could erase the memories of the Dursleys. Marge was questioned using truth serum and admitted to trying to kill Harry. When asked why she killed Dudley she honestly had no idea what the examiner was talking about. Further examination by a healer showed she suffered from alcoholism and without treatment she would most likely die within ten years thanks to all the damage the booze was doing to her organs and brain."

"What happened to her after that?"

"She committed suicide that night," Remus answered, the anger barely controlled as he said it. "Evidently someone carelessly left several feet of rope in her cell where she could tie her hands and feet together before looping it around a support beam in the ceiling and then hanging herself."

"Terrible accident there," voiced Snape, hating child abusers almost as much as he hated James Potter. "What of Petunia and Vernon?"

"Vernon had a heart attack a few nights after his arrest and questioning," replied Remus. "Petunia was looking at some severe jail time for multiple charges including child abuse and child endangerment for her treatment of Harry, but she had a mental breakdown after Vernon died. As far as we know she is still in a mental hospital in London, but for all we know she could be dead by now."

"I knew her as a child," Snape said after a few seconds of silence. "She was never a very likable person, but she was Lily's sister. How could she do that to the boy?"

Remus just shrugged, answering, "She was a mean and crazy bitch and as far as I'm concerned, karma paid her back in full for everything she ever did or let happen to Harry. I personally hope that whole family rots in Hell."

After that conversation Snape had secluded himself in his room, trying to reconcile the image he had of Harry's life with the harsh truth. Everyone else in the house seemed to wander off on their own while coming to terms with the changes that were coming their way. It was several hours later when Sirius literally crawled out of the Floo connection, causing Remus to walk in and find his long time friend laying on the floor with a goofy grin on his face.

"I take it she forgave you and agreed to help us with this situation?" Remus asked, receiving a nod from Sirius. "I also assume you two made up and that is the cause of your current condition?"

"Yup!"

"So, we will be attending the Triwizard Tournament in style?" Remus continued when Sirius gave no indication of supplying further details.

"I bloody love Veela," was Sirius' reply. "Angelique got me all the paperwork we need and then she called her sister over. You've met her, Aimee. She works for the French Department of Magical Housing."

"And Aimee managed to get us a place to stay while at Hogwarts?" Remus asked looking down at his friend.

"Oh yeah," Sirius said with a smile. "She called their aunt, she's evidently one of the leaders of the Veela clans here in France, and she agreed to let us use one of their portable embassies."

"A portable embassy?" asked Remus. "I've never heard of one of those."

Sirius, still laying on the floor and looking up at Remus with a silly grin explained, "A portable embassy looks like a briefcase until you expand it. Then it turns into a small marble building, looks a lot like an old Greek temple, but once you walk in you realize it's just like a magical tent as it's bigger on the inside than the outside. Has two floors with meeting rooms and the like on the first floor with six bedrooms on the second floor. Aimee assured me that once the embassy is expanded, it's near impossible to get into unless you have been keyed in beforehand. She claims even the Goblins can't get in, so I hope it will be good enough for our purposes. I'll key everyone in before we leave tomorrow."

"Well, it sounds like you accomplished everything we needed you to," Remus stated after thinking about it for a few moments. "I guess I can see why it took you so long."

"Oh, that stuff only took about fifteen minutes," Sirius said, his grin getting even bigger. "The rest of the time was spent 'repaying' Angelique and Aimee."

"Twins, Sirius?" asked Remus.

"Yep," replied Sirius with a note of pride.

"French Veela twins?" Remus continued.

"Yep," responded Sirius.

"I hate you and everything you stand for, Sirius," Remus finally growled.

"I know," acknowledged Sirius. "That's why I asked if they had any friends I could introduce you to. We've got a double date, me, Angelique and Aimee, and then you and their two cousins, Colette and her sister Marie. Next weekend."

"I love your, Sirius," Remus said after a moments thought. "You are my hero."

"I know," acknowledged Sirius with his largest and silliest smile yet.

* * *

_AN:_

_Sorry, publishing new chapters has to sometimes take a backseat to working and making money. I know, we all wish we could make it so that was not the case, but wishes don't pay the bills._

_New chapter for you all and the beginning of the true story. I've already had some people say the story is cliched and all that, but I don't care as I like it and ideas are popping into my head regularly for it. I need you to remember that comics have always been based on cliches, stereotypes, and fanfiction. Think about it, what are comics but fanfiction version of the ancient legends and myths. Fanfiction is older than you think and more commercial than you know._

_I went back and recreated two characters, or more, for the story as I plotted out the altered timeline of this story. Yes, Ginny died in the Chamber of Secrets, but that is not the end of her story or that of the Weasley's involvement in this world._

_Lot of guesses on who is what. I've got to say that some of the guesses were right on, and some were way off. Still, you know who most of the DC heroes are, though not all, so if you think about it and my habit of pulling a rabbit out of my hat you may be surprised who I see as what._

_Anyway, that's it for now. Keep an eye on my blog for possible updates on story plotting._

_Chris :)_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Arrival**

**_Earth 7/Beta _**

**_3 November, 1994_**

**_Northern Scotland_**

**_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_**

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was excited. No, he was beyond excited. He was absolutely giddy with anticipation. In just a few minutes Severus would be returning with Harry Potter in tow, thus finally bringing the boy under Albus' control. Once here, separated from his godfather and the young girl that Sirius had adopted, Albus was positive he would be able to mold the young Mr. Potter into exactly what he wanted the boy to be, a weak willed simpleton that would march happily off to his own death when the time came. Albus felt positive there was no way his plans could fail as the boy had been raised by Sirius Black, so there was very little chance Harry Potter had ever focused on his education?

_"Yes,"_ Albus thought to himself. _"The boy is most likely a lazy layabout, just like Sirius was in school, focused more on playing pranks and chasing skirts than spending time paying attention to his education."_

Yes, it worried the elderly Headmaster that Harry's name had come out of the Goblet, considering he knew for a fact Harry had not been in the country for several years. Pulling the scrap of paper from his robes, Albus examined the signature again. It looked rather messy and childish, having been clearly torn from the bottom of a Ministry form, but it was still Harry's signature. Whomever had entered the boy in the Tournament had gone to a great deal of trouble to get Harry's signature, especially a signature not given under duress. The Goblet was an ancient and powerful magical artifact, but it was not infallible. Albus would have been hard pressed to duplicate the extremely powerful and monstrously dark spells used to confuse the Goblet enough to choose a fourth Champion, not that he wouldn't have tried if he had been able to get Harry's signature on his own. Still, Harry was just another victim of the battle between Albus and Voldemort, so the old Headmaster didn't feel too bad.

Albus regretted that the boy would eventually have to die, so that Tom Riddle could be defeated, but sacrifices always had to be made in times of war. This situation was no different than when he tipped off the Death Eaters to where the Prewett brothers were hiding. Their deaths were regrettable, but Albus had needed to judge the strength of Tom's forces. The fact that two men had been able to kill so many Death Eaters had only proved to Albus that the Order of the Phoenix was stronger than Tom's minions. The regrettable fact the Order had suffered one devastating loss after another following the deaths of Fabian and Gideon just proved no one else took the war as seriously as he did. After all, he was Albus Dumbledore, leader of the Light and the most powerful wizard since Merlin himself, so how could he expect anyone else to grasp the fact that he knew what was best for them. It never once entered his mind the deaths of the two beloved Prewett brothers had been a crushing blow to the morale of the remaining Order of the Phoenix members, nor that he had considerably crippled his side by wasting the lives of two of the bravest men the Order had ever seen.

"Minerva," Albus calmly said, doing his best to hide his anticipation. "They should be here any moment. Have you made the arrangements for Mister Potter to move into the fourth year Gryffindor dorm room?"

"Yes, Albus," replied the woman at his side, the stern looking Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. "I also made sure to schedule him for all of their classes, just as you requested."

"Good," Albus said with a kind smile. "The poor boy has been using private tutors for years now, so I'm sure he's horribly behind in his studies. We will probably have to assign him tutors to bring him up to our standards."

"We won't know that for sure until we see his transcripts, Albus," countered Minerva, fighting not to roll her eyes. "The ICW refused to let you look at his grades previously, so you really have no idea where he is in his education. For all we know, Harry Potter could be a genius and far ahead of his year mates."

Albus internally grumbled that once again someone was not following his lead. "Minerva, you know as well as I do what type of student Sirius Black was. Can you honestly say that he would ever encourage someone to study? No, I'm positive the boy will be woefully behind in his studies. I mean, he was unable to get into any of the lesser magical schools in Europe, leaving him with only tutors to carry on his education. You've seen the quality of private tutors we have here in England, can you imagine they are any better in France?"

True, he had been behind the scenes blackballing Harry from every other school in Europe, but that was hardly something he wanted to admit to his Deputy. It had cost him the last of his political power, all of his remaining favors, all of his friends outside the United Kingdom, and countless compulsion charms to make sure Harry's only choice for an education was Hogwarts. The fact that Sirius had managed to hire private tutors for his Godson was seen as an insult to everything Albus had sacrificed to get the Potter heir under his control, gaining him a pyrrhic victory at best. Now, seemingly by an act of some higher power, Harry Potter would be delivered into his hands, finally. Albus saw it as a victory for the Light, or more importantly a validation that he had once again been right all along.

"Sadly, I fear we will have our work cut out for us," Albus said with faux concern, trying to hide his glee. "I shudder to think of the shocking lack of manners the boy will also have. To think, the Wizengamot thought someone like Sirius Black would be a better guardian to the boy than myself."

Minerva looked like she was going to argue the point, but finally sighed and looked over at the spot just outside the gates that was the return Portkey destination for Severus and Mister Potter. She had been listening to Albus rant and rave about Harry Potter since the day Sirius Black was granted custody of the boy. Of course she knew all about the old man's meddling in Harry's life and prayed the boy's visit to England went the way she hoped it would. It was long past the time for someone to knock down Albus Dumbledore's house of cards and hopefully Harry's arrival would be the start of it. As if on cue, there was a brief flash of light and a gust of warm air as the Portkey deposited its passengers right where it was supposed to. There stood Severus and Harry Potter, with Harry looking handsome and fit in his finely tailored Muggle suit looking anything but the ill mannered hooligan Albus had been hoping for. Still, it was the addition of several other faces that had Minerva ready to dance for joy. Recognizing two of the additional faces in the crowd, Minerva could not help but feel a sense of reliefe.

_"Oh, Albus,"_ she thought to herself with a sly glance at the Headmaster. _"I don't think your plans for Harry are going to go quite as you expected. Thank God."_

As for Albus Dumbledore, well he was less than pleased by the addition of five faces he had not expected. Three of the faces could be easily identified. The first two belonged to Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. The second face he recognized, mainly from descriptions of the girl, belonged to Sirius' adopted daughter and heir, Kara Black. Dumbledore could see where some would say the girl was attractive, with her slim athletic figure and long golden hair, if you liked that type. As for the other people there was an older gentleman wearing a very expensive looking Muggle suit and an attractive young woman with silvery blonde hair wearing a shockingly short skirt and a suit coat covering a white blouse.

"Severus, my dear fellow, what is the meaning of this?" asked Dumbledore, trying to understand what was going on here. "You were only required to retrieve Mister Potter, who are these other people and what are they doing here with you?"

"Allow me to explain that, Headmaster Dumbledore," replied the older gentleman. "My name is Pierre Davenport, Head of the French Department of Magical Cooperation. At my side is Mademoiselle Angelique D'Angelo, newly installed Headmistress of the Kryptonian School for Advanced Education and Magic."

"I've never heard of such a school," objected Albus, concerned where this conversation might be heading.

Mister Davenport smiled, a rather condescending smile, before responding. "Yes, the Kryptonian School for Advanced Education and Magic is a very exclusive school, taking only the best and finest minds available. Currently only two students meet the requirements for admission, but Headmistress D'Angelo hopes to use her time here at Hogwarts to seek out and recruit other students that meet the entrance qualifications."

Stepping forward, Mister Davenport handed three plain brown folders to Minerva, saying, "The first of those folders contains all the information on the school, including copies of its accreditation and charter. The other two folders contain copies of Mister Potter's and Miss Black's transcripts. I must say, the French government is quite pleased with their progress and looks forward to their future achievements."

Minerva was dumbstruck as she glanced through Harry's transcripts. Not only had the two young people already sat their OWLs, but they had also sat their A-Levels in the corresponding Muggle subjects, earning the highest scores possible in both. Glancing over at Albus, Minerva could not help but feel sorry for the old coot as his well laid out plans for Harry had just gone out the window.

"Thank you, Monsieur Davenport," Harry said with a smile. "Kara and I try our very best not to waste the opportunities we have received in-regards to our education. Your help in getting us the special dispensation from the ICW so that we could sit our OWLs early helped us greatly. Not to mention your assistance when it came time to schedule our A-Levels. I have to say, the French government has been most kind to us and we can hardly find words to express our gratitude."

_"Bugger!"_ Albus mentally screamed. _"He's got the French eating out of his hands if they allowed the boy to... Wait... No... Oh no... He could only get those dispensations if he could prove to the ICW that he was already studying beyond the OWL material. That means he's already progressed farther than I wanted him to. How can I mold him if he's already well past the point of needing my help? I'll have to retard his growth while he's living in Gryffindor Tower. Maybe I'll force him to work with Ronald Weasley. He's the laziest person I've ever met. Yes, that will work."_

"Congratulations, Mister Potter on your top scores in all your OWL and A-Level tests," Minerva said with a small smile, watching as Albus cringed when she said it. "It says here that you and Miss Black are already reviewing for your NEWTs, is that true?"

Kara, wearing a knee length black skirt, a white blouse, stockings, and a pair of black two inch heels smiled at the Professor before saying, "Yes, Ma'am. Harry and I are both planning to take our NEWTs this upcoming spring before focusing on our Non-Magical studies for a time. Harry hopes to someday go into Aeronautical Engineering with a minor in Spell Design while I would like to focus on Computer Engineering with a minor in Advanced Transfiguration. Both subjects require several years of further Non-Magical education, not to mention several years of study apprenticed to a Master for our chosen minors, but we feel it is worth it."

"I fail to see the need to study Muggle subjects if you looking into, Spell Design, Harry," Albus interrupted.

"I'm sorry Headmaster Dumbledore, but I am not comfortable with you using my first name," replied Harry, the hard edge to his voice making Dumbledore worry that the boy would refuse to listen to him. "As for my choices for my education and eventual career, I fail to see where your opinion is any concern of mine. I am here because it seems I must be, but the moment I am free to leave, I will."

"Now Harry," Sirius said, laying a hand on Harry's shoulder to calm him down. "I'm sure that Headmaster Dumbledore is merely curious as to why you would choose those areas of study. He is rather old, so unaware of the marvelous advances the Non-Magical world has made in the last one hundred years or so. I'm sorry Headmaster, but Harry tends to be very blunt when faced with ignorance."

"That's quite alright," Albus replied with a grandfatherly smile, though inside he was fuming that the two had shown him such a lack of respect. "The follies of youth often have us speaking before we think. It happens to us all. It is to be hoped that Harry's stay here at Hogwarts will help teach him to think clearer and listen to those that have his best interests at heart. To that end we've made arrangements for Harry to stay in Gryffindor Tower after you and the rest leave. I'm sure mixing with students his own age will be good for the boy."

"Oh, you misunderstand, Albus," interrupted, Angelique. "Harry will not be needing accommodations inside Hogwarts, nor will he be remaining here alone. As per the rules of the Triwizard Tournament, and the Contract as implied by Harry's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire, representatives of his school will be required to stay here with him until such time as he completes the final task. Also, in compliance with the rules of the Tournament, we will provide our own lodgings, as is required of us per said rules. Since he is allowed representation by members of his faculty and student body, Miss Black will be staying with him, as will Mister Lupin as his Faculty Advisor. Other teachers will floo in daily to continue Harry's education in order to preserve the rapid rate of his mental and physical development."

"Preposterous!" Albus shouted, finally loosing his cool. "We have no room in the school for Lupin or Black's daughter, let alone anyone else that might pop in and out as they see fit. There is not enough room in Gryffindor Tower for anyone other that Mister Potter, so the rest of you will have to leave."

"If you had listened to what Headmistress D'Angelo had to say, rather than ignoring her, you would have definitely heard her say that Harry and the others have no need of a place to stay," stated Mister Davenport. "Mister Potter will not be staying in Gryffindor Tower. He will be staying in a Portable Embassy, graciously provided by the Head of the Veela Clans of Europe, where he will be able to continue his classes unimpeded by any distractions he might be subjected to if he were to reside anywhere within Hogwarts. This is a decision supported by the rules of the Triwizard Tournament, but also by the French Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards. Do I make myself clear?"

Dumbledore was seething now, and the fact that he was visibly trembling with rage made it clear to everyone present that he was not happy with what he was hearing. "Fine! Do as you wish, but remember, while Mister Potter and Miss Black are here at Hogwarts they will be required to follow our rules, so if either of them breaks a single rule I will be well within my rights to eject them from the grounds."

"Actually, that isn't true either," objected Remus. "As he will not be living in the castle, nor will he be attending classes there, Harry and Kara's actions do not fall under your control. As the representative of their school, any infractions of the rules by them will be handled by me, as will their punishments if needed. You have no say what-so-ever regarding them."

_"This cannot be happening!"_ thought Albus as he watched all his careful planning fall apart. "Fine! I expect you to not allow your connection to the boy's family to cloud your judgement and to do what must be done for the greater good. Severus, where is the Auror that went with you to retrieve Mister Potter? I would have thought she would be responsible enough to fulfill her assignment, or did she run afoul of the French government?"

Severus' outside appearance remained emotionless, even though he was laughing on the inside as he answered, "Auror Trainee Tonks fulfilled her duties perfectly, Headmaster. We actually arrived in London last night at which time she reported in to her superior immediately, notifying them of a mission successfully completed. She also delivered copies of all the documents that Professor McGonagall currently holds in her hands, along with a personal letter from the French Minister of Magic commending her on her professionalism while in his country. As I understand it, she also delivered a personal note to Minister Fudge from Minister Delacour stating that he would take it as a great insult to his country if anyone should try to interfere with Mister Potter's education or life."

Albus was not happy with that news. As long as the Ministry had been unaware of what was going on, Albus could have taken steps to remove the unwanted guests from the school, thus returning Harry to his control. With the Ministry being fully in the know and with his lack of any type of political pull it would be nearly impossible to kick the frogs off his land, or remove the little tramp that was currently attached to Harry's arms. She was probably the most dangerous threat to Albus' plans. He had wanted to tie Harry to one of the families that still supported him through one of their daughters, thus insuring that Harry would never leave England, but with Black's little bint around him all the time, that would be impossible. This would require much thought and careful planning to fix.

"As you say," Albus finally responded, once again trying to act like a kind old man. "My apologies for losing my temper with you all. The failings of an old man who has lived as many years as I have is that surprises, as welcome as they are, can leave you overly emotional. Please, make yourselves at home here at Hogwarts and I hope to see you tonight at the feast we have arranged to welcome you."

"Before you go, Headmaster Dumbledore," said Harry in a polite tone of voice, "I was wondering if you could tell me how it is that my name came out of the Goblet of Fire when I have evidence and witnesses that can prove I did not put my name in it?"

"Yes, well it seems that someone used an old signature of yours off of a Ministry form," Albus said, handing the charred scrap of paper to Harry. "You willingly signed your name on whatever form it was, that combined with several powerful spells was enough to convince the Goblet that you willingly entered the Tournament."

"That simple," mused Harry as he looked at the piece of parchment in his hand. "I am assuming when you say powerful charms that this is not something we can easily duplicate?"

Dumbledore thought about it for a moment, honestly he believed he and Tom were the only ones powerful enough to do this, but said, "No. Only an extremely powerful wizard or witch could do this type of thing."

"So, anyone not from the UK," supplied Davenport, earning himself a glare from Dumbledore.

"I believe only someone more powerful than myself could have done this," countered Dumbledore.

"Yes, that's what Davenport said," replied Sirius with a smirk. "You have gotten old, Dumbledore. The world moves towards the future everywhere save here where your shadow still lingers. I wonder, what will history say about you when you are gone, that you were a great man, or that you doomed generations of English witches and wizards to mediocracy?"

Albus glared at the younger man for a moment, then spun around and stalked away towards Hogwarts. If the tightness around his eyes and white knuckles was any indication, he was not a happy man. Minerva however remained behind, watching Albus' retreating back until he was out of sight before she turned back towards the crowd with a grin on her face. A moment later she was being hugged by first Sirius and then Remus.

"You all played that game very well," she said once her former students released her. "I've never seen anyone handle Albus that well in years. It was far past time for it, if you ask me."

"Thanks, Minny," Remus and Sirius said in unison, bowing as they did.

"Aunty Min!" chorused Harry and Kara, each giving their adopted aunt a hug.

"How as my two favorite troublemakers?" asked the formerly stern looking woman with a smile that lit up her face. "I've missed you both so very much!"

"We just saw you this summer, Aunty," countered Kara.

"Very true, but I missed you both not five minutes after leaving," responded Minerva with a smile.

Harry hugged the older woman again, kissing her cheek. "We missed you, too. Dumbledore hasn't been causing you problems, has he?"

"No more so than he usually does," Minerva replied with a sad smile. "However, once your mane came out of the goblet, he just would not shut up about you, Harry. I was worried about how you were going to handle this situation, but the moment I saw you all I knew things were not going to go his way."

"Albus Dumbledore long ago forgot that he is just a man and not what his legend makes him out to be," added Davenport. "He tries to make everyone think he is a kind and caring old man, but in reality he is a manipulative old bastard with no concern for the lives of the people around him. A fact proven during the war with Gellert Grindelwald and the following one with Tom Marvolo Riddle, better known as Voldemort."

"Excuse me," Snape broke in. "Are you telling me that the Dark Lord's real name is Riddle? I've never heard of a pureblood family by that name."

Davenport snorted at the mention of Voldemort's self appointed title. "That's because he is not a pureblood. His mother might have been, but his father was a Non-Magical womanizing fop, I think he was the son of one of the local politicians. His mother's name was Merope Gaunt, a sad example of the results of inbreeding amongst the pureblood families, used a love potion on him and tricked him into marrying her. Stupid girl got pregnant and decided to stop dosing him with the potion thinking he would stay because of the baby. Well, she was wrong and he was on the first train home the moment the last of the potion wore off. The girl died in a flop house giving birth to her son, she refused the medical treatment that could have saved her life and survived just long enough to name the boy, but not long enough to tell anyone where his father could be found."

"How do you know all this?" asked Harry. "If you knew all this, why didn't you share it with everyone else. It could have helped to stop him years ago."

Davenport just shook his head and laughed. "The Americans, or their Department of Arcane Intelligence, found all this information out about Riddle within weeks of his first public attack. The Yanks immediately sent copies of everything they found out about him to all the European countries, including England, but the British Ministry of Magic refused to admit they had a problem, and tossed the information out like so much rubbish. The Americans kept collecting information on Riddle right up until his little run in with you, sending copies of what they found to all the involved parties."

"And the Ministry just kept throwing it away," Sirius finished for him. "Makes sense. They never would ask for help and once he was supposedly dead they just tried to brush it all under the rug as quickly as they could. I'm proof of that."

Harry shook his head and smiled at his Godfather. "No, you are proof that Dumbledore is a manipulative bastard, not that he really matters anymore."

Turning back to Davenport, Harry asked, "Do you think that as an involved party I might be able to get a full copy of all the information your government has about Riddle?"

"Oh, I think that can be arranged," replied Davenport, pulling out a small leather wrapped box. "I thought I would leave that for you anyway, so it is just good timing that you should ask for it now. Inside is a full copy of the information the Americans gathered, including about fifteen copies of memories they gathered at the same time. You'll need a pensive to view them, but I think you'll find them all interesting. Make sure you pay very close attention to the vials with the black ribbon tied around them, there are six of those and they are the most important memories we collected."

"Thank you, Mister Davenport," Kara said, rushing over and surprising him with a kiss on the cheek. "You've helped us more than you can ever know."

After saying farewell to Davenport, he promised to come by and check up on them from time to time, they made their way past the gate of the school. Harry was continually looking at the leather wrapped box in his hand, but Kara insisted they setup their temporary abode before he would be allowed to open it. Minerva was busy talking with Remus, Sirius, and Angelique regarding Harry's education, while Snape followed a few steps behind them. The pale faced Potions Professor still bothered Harry, but they had spoken privately the previous night and many of their issues had been resolved.

That didn't mean that new issues had not been brought to Harry's attention. Snape had fully admitted to being a reformed Death Eater, along with explaining his role as a spy for Dumbledore during the last war. He also freely admitted that he turned against his master because Riddle had targeted Harry's parents based on information that he had provided the madman. This led to a minor revelation that Snape and Lily, Harry's mother, had been childhood friends, remaining close until Snape made a foolish mistake during their time at Hogwarts together. Though they had not spoken in many years, Snape still cared for his friend and did not want to see her come to harm at the hands of his new Master. When he begged Riddle not to kill Harry's mother he had been harshly rebuffed and in his fear for Lily's life he had turned to Dumbledore as his last hope for her safety.

Snape would not divulge what information he had revealed to Riddle, nor would he go into any further detail as to the role he played in the war after his defection. All the man would say was that he had sworn to protect Harry, for Lily's sake, when he found out the Potters had been killed by his former Master. Unfortunately, Snape had been unable to carry through on the promise due to Dumbledore placing the boy in an unknown location. When Harry told him that he had been placed with the Dursleys, Snape revealed his childhood history with the Evans daughters, especially the fact that Petunia had always been jealous of her younger sister's abilities and her treatment of Lily's only son really did not surprise him because of it. He even admitted to being happy that Harry had been rescued by Sirius, even if he did still harbor a grudge against the last remaining Black.

"How about right here?" Sirius asked, interrupting Harry's thoughts.

They were standing about halfway between the shore of the Black Lake and a rather large horse drawn carriage. Professor McGonagall and Snape had evidently headed back towards the castle to prepare for the feast later that night, leaving just Harry, his family, and Angelique standing by the lake. The view was rather pretty and they were not to near or too far from the castle for privacy to be an issue. Harry nodded, thinking this was as good a location as any to setup their temporary shelter. Taking the nod as approval, Angelique set down the briefcase she was carrying and then drew her wand so as to tap the top of it three times before taking several steps back.

The briefcase began to glow a light blue color, then seemed to anchor itself to the ground. A moment later the briefcase opened and a cloud of golden dust filled the air. Strange sounds came out of the cloud for several minutes, making Harry wonder exactly what was happening inside it, but finally the sounds stopped and the cloud dispersed. Where the briefcase had previously sat was what looked like a smaller version of an ancient Greek temple. It was made completely of white marble, with massive columns surrounding an inner building that was also made of white marble. The doors of the inner structure were at least five meters tall and four meters wide, looking to be made of solid gold or highly polished bronze. All in all, it was a beautiful structure.

"I know it's not much to look at, but wait till you see the inside," Angelique finally said with a playful smirk.

After showing Harry and Remus how to key people into the security system, Angelique led them inside. Kara was instantly enthralled with design of the interior and Harry couldn't blame her. The entry hall was a large reception area with white marble with thick crimson carpets and tapestries everywhere, including the massive reception desk in front of the room's inner doorway. Angelique explained that normally a squad of Veela guards would be working as security in the room, but as it was being used by someone other than the Veela Clan Head, it was not deemed necessary.

"Though the Clan Head herself has stated that if you are willing to pay a retainer for their services, she would be more than happy to supply you with any number of guards you might require," added Angelique with a smile.

"Not to sound foolish," interrupted Sirius, "but couldn't we hire non-Veela to act as guards?"

Angelique nodded, then smiled rather deviously, saying, "You could do that, of course. The real question you should be asking is whether you could afford non-Veela guards or if you would rather save the money and hire Veela."

This sounded interesting, so Harry asked, "Okay, you make it sound like the Veela would be cheaper to hire, but would they be better?"

That's when Angelique turned on the charm, or in her case the Allure. It is a well known fact that all Veela can let off an Allure capable of turning most men into drooling piles of goo. Angelique was no different and her sudden display of her Allure had Remus and Sirius on their knees staring up at her with a mixture of lust and adoration. While Kara looked completely unaffected, Harry was having some issues regarding his blood flow and where it was flowing to right at the moment. Angelique giggled, but nodded at him for his evident control over his sudden desires. Kara on the other hand was blushing madly as she kept looking down at the rather impressive evidence of Harry's current state of mind.

"Enough," growled Harry rather huskily, causing Kara to blush even further at the sound of his deeper than normal voice. "I get the picture. God, do I get the picture. Now stop before you reduce Sirius and Remus to panting dogs."

"Too late," supplied Kara, pointing at Sirius and the fact that he was currently in his dog form sitting on his haunches and begging. "Sirius seems to have two tales at the moment."

"Oh my," Angelique said, blushing prettily as she stopped emitting her Allure. "I didn't want it to go that far, just to show you how effective a Veela guard can be."

"Yeah," groaned Sirius, after changing back into a man and adjusting his pants slightly. "They can put a man down in almost an instant, unless it's someone like Harry, but what about against women?"

"That's what the pointy swords and wands are for," supplied Angelique. "Trust me, Veela guards are not something to fool around with. Those Veela that choose to be trained as guardians and warriors are fierce combatants very few, be they man or woman, would want to cross. Generally they are considered to be the equal to any Goblin Legion, though we lack their impressive numbers. The fact Hippolyta, the Head of the Veela Clans, has seen fit to offer you this opportunity is astounding in and of itself, as she normally doesn't look kindly on men."

"Sounds like my mother," muttered Sirius, causing Remus nod. "We'll take the deal then. How much will it cost us?"

"Oh, not much," replied Angelique. "Though it won't be you that she deals with, Sirius. Hippolyta will seek payment from Harry when the time comes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Harry, not liking the sounds of this at all.

Angelique held her hands up to show she meant not harm, then smiled at him before saying, "It is nothing onerous, just a favor she will ask of you at some point in the future. The Veela clans have access to several Oracles, and they all say the same thing about you, that you will be a force for good in this world. They also say that you will bear a heavy burden, but that you will be supported by your family, friends, and loves. She merely wishes to learn more about you at some point in the future, that's all. Just for your agreeing to do that, and for granting her a favor at some time in the future, she will supply all the protection you will need for your stay here."

Harry thought about this, looking around at his family. Sirius and Remus seemed concerned, but nodded their agreement to the deal. Kara on the other hand was looking down at her feet and seemed to no longer be listening to what was being said. Harry held a single finger up, requesting a moment alone, then pulled Kara away from the other three.

"What's wrong?" he asked her the moment they were far enough away.

Kara looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "She said 'loves' as in plural. Like you'll have more than one of them. Meaning we won't be together forever, or something will happen to me, because you can't have more than one love if something happens to you."

"Bollocks!" whispered Harry. "You're the only one for me, and nothing is going to happen to you because I won't let it. Got that?"

"Sure," she muttered, looking back down at her feet.

Some things just always seemed wrong to Harry. Boy bands were in his opinion a tool of the Devil. Sweet-n-Low was neither and should be wiped from the face of the Earth. Bill Clinton was too much like Sirius, he just hoped the man didn't sleep around as much as Sirius did. Oh, and as far as he was concerned, American football was an abomination against its namesake. Yet for all that, there was one thing that never sat right with Harry and that was seeing Kara unhappy. The fact that Kara was frowning because she thought he would cast her aside at some point just made it all that much worse. So, drawing upon every iota of courage contained within his fourteen year old frame, Harry lifted her chin up so he could look her in the eyes and did something he knew would drive his point home.

Several weeks before they had shared their first kiss, and to be honest, neither of them had felt it was the best they could do. What with all the chaos since then, Harry had not had the opportunity to try and improve on their first attempt. Now, with a passion that could only be born from not wanting the woman you love to doubt that love, Harry leaned down and claimed Kara's lips as his own. He poured everything he had into to that kiss and judging from the fact that she had just wrapped her arms around his neck, she was feeling it. It was nearly a full minute before they pulled apart, and even as they looked into each others eyes, Harry felt as if he was floating on thin air.

"Wowsers!" Kara finally said, laying her head on Harry's chest, never dropping her arms from around his neck.

Harry was just about to ask her if she finally understood how much he loved her when Angelique said, "And now I understand why the Oracles calls you the Wingless Angels."

That got Kara and Harry's attention instantly and had them looking down at their feet. It was no wonder they felt weightless, considering they were floating a meter off the ground. They quickly landed, or Harry did as he suspected that he was the one holding Kara up due to her hanging from his neck. The instant they touched the ground, Harry turned to Angelique with a pleading look on his face.

"You can't ever tell anyone," he begged. "Please?"

"I've suddenly developed amnesia regarding the last few minutes, but you're going to owe me an explanation someday," she stated with a smile.

"Earn my trust and I'll tell you everything," agreed Harry.

Angelique thought about that for a moment, then nodded in acceptance. "Deal, Harry. I'll earn your trust, that's a promise and a damned good excuse to stick around and keep Sirius out of trouble."

"Good," stated Harry, then looking at Kara he smiled. "Send word to Clan Leader Hippolyta that I agree to speak with her so she can learn more about me and that I am officially requesting Veela guards for the duration of our stay here at Hogwarts."

"I'll pass the message and request to her," Angelique replied. "They will most likely arrive within the hour."

What followed was a short tour of the Veela Embassy. Harry had to admit, it was probably the coolest building he had ever seen. Combining all the beauty of Greek architecture with numerous modern improvements, the Embassy was perfect for their needs. The first floor had been converted from offices for the dignitaries to classrooms in which Harry and Kara could continue their education. Everything was present, including a fully stocked potions laboratory to a highly shielded computer lab for Kara to work in.

The second floor of the Embassy was composed of a kitchen, a rather large gymnasium, two locker rooms, a nice sized library, a family room, and numerous bedrooms. Harry and Kara of course picked bedrooms right next to each other while Remus picked one closer to the library. Sirius, though he wouldn't be staying with them for most of the time, reserved the bedroom at the other end of the hall from Harry and Kara. When asked which room Angelique would be staying in when she visited, she just smiled and pointed at Sirius room, causing him to turn a shocking shade of red.

After unpacking, and Kara finding the door that joined their rooms, Harry led the entourage back outside and towards the castle. The walk took longer than needed due to Sirius and Remus looking around and sharing short stories about their adventures while attending Hogwarts. Personally, Harry was grateful for the slight delay as he really didn't want to have to face Dumbledore again. The old man infuriated Harry like no one else ever had before, and he had only just met the old Headmaster that day.

"Dumbledore will try something tonight," Harry whispered to everyone around him. "Too many of his plans were ruined this afternoon. Tonight he will try to rally his forces and throw them against us."

"We know, Harry," soothed Kara. "We're all here to prevent that from happening. If he tries anything, we'll just return to the Embassy where he can't touch us."

Angelique nodded at this, her face covered by a rather wicked expression. "Let him try to force you to do anything. As of now, you are under the protection of not only the French Ministry of Magic, but also the Veela Clans. While the Veela may not hold a great deal of power here in England, we have treaties with every other European country and can bring a great deal of international pressure against him if we must."

When they reached the great doors of the entrance hall, Harry pushed them wide open with a small portion of his strength. Unfortunately for him he had not taken into account that the massive doors were charmed to be lighter than they looked causing them to swing open with such force that they slammed into the walls with a thunderous noise. Kara was shaking her head, trying not to laugh while the rest of his group, especially Angelique, was looking at him with looks of disapproval. Harry just rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin and tried to play it off.

"Was that really called for, Harry?" asked Sirius, though it was obvious his disapproval was only a mask.

"Sorry, Sirius," replied Harry, looking down at the floor. "I thought they would be heavier than they really are."

Sirius nodded, then smiled at his Godson saying, "It's okay, sport, just try not to do it again."

"Yes, Sirius," agreed Harry, before offering his arm to Kara, which she happily took.

Harry led the group down the aisle between the suddenly silent tables. He was slightly impressed by the gothic splendor of the room, but the slack jawed stares from the various students soured the experience for him. By the time they were halfway to the head table the room was filled with the hiss of numerous whispered conversations. It was one of the few times when Harry and Kara both wished their enhanced hearing could be turned off. Sadly it was a burden they would have to bare silently. Thankfully, silence fell once again when Dumbledore stood and cleared his throat.

"Ah, I see our final Champion has finally arrived," said Dumbledore as Harry and the others approached.

"As if they hadn't figured that out already," whispered Kara.

Dumbledore, once again radiating a sense of grandfatherly affection, smiled out at the assemblage in front of him as he continued to speak. "I would like to formally welcome our fourth Triwizard Champion, Harry James Potter."

The fact that Dumbledore seemed disinclined to introduce the other members of Harry's group was not lost on anyone. This immediately got on Harry's nerves as it showed a great deal of disrespect for his family and Angelique. As Dumbledore continued to rattle on a few unimportant facts, such as the fact that Harry was going to be joining them for the rest of the year, Harry counted to ten in an attempt to give the man time to correct his mistake. When it was clear that Dumbledore had no intention of introducing anyone else, or even mentioning that what school he was representing, Harry decided it was time to take action. His temper peaked when Dumbledore began implying that Harry would be finishing his education at Hogwarts. He was just about to set the record straight when Sirius beat him to it.

"Excuse me, Headmaster Dumbledore," Sirius said rather loudly, his voice echoing around the room. "It seems that in your rush to welcome Harry to Hogwarts that you've forgotten our previous conversation."

"I'm not sure what you mean," replied Dumbledore in harsh tone, hoping to intimidate Sirius into being silent. "I am merely introducing Harry to the rest of his peers here at Hogwarts. You can't expect the young man to spend the rest of his educational career here and not be introduced to his fellow students."

"Old age must be clouding your memory even more than we feared, Headmaster Dumbledore," responded Angelique, causing many in the room to start whispering amongst themselves that anyone would show such disrespect to Albus Dumbledore. "We have already made it quite clear that Harry will not be staying here past the completion of the final task of the Triwizard Tournament, a fact you seem to have forgotten or chosen to overlook. Not only that, but it seems your manners have slipped in your dotage, Albus. You seem to have forgotten to introduce the rest of us."

Albus was turning red now, his anger only barely suppressed as he ground out, "I will thank you to show me the respect I am due, young woman.

"Only when you earn it, old man," hissed Harry, just loud enough for the entire room to hear it.

"Quite right, Harry," agreed Remus. "Professor Dumbledore, you used to teach students that good manners were the first step in turning a possible enemy into a valued friend, but here you are ignoring that very lesson."

"Sadly, old age will do that to a person," added Sirius. "As Dumbledore seems reluctant to introduce us, I will do it for him. My name is Sirius Black, Lord of the Ancient and Noble House of Black and the legal guardian of Harry here. To Harry's left is my adopted daughter and heir, Kara Black. On my left we have Remus Lupin, Harry and Kara's Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. On my right we have Angelique D'Angelo, Headmistress of the Kryptonian School for Advanced Education and Magic."

At the mention of the name of Harry's school, he and Kara both watched two people suddenly look directly at them. One was a rather tall young man with dark brown hair and a muscular build. The other was a slightly younger looking girl with waist length blonde hair and intense grey eyes. Both students seemed to study Harry and Kara most intently before looking away again. Harry glanced at Kara seeing she too had noticed the two students, then returned his attention to the rest of the room.

"Thank you for that introduction, Sirius," Angelique said with a devastatingly beautiful smile aimed at the man. "As the Headmistress of Mister Potter's school, I greet each and every one of you and hope that we can all become well aquatinted during our stay."

"How come I've never heard of that school before," asked a bushy haired girl at one of the tables.

Harry turned to look at the girl and was surprised to see that even without his Mage Sight activated he could see the magic radiating off the girl. Activating his ability, Harry realized the girl was hiding an amazing amount of magical power. He also noticed that she was wearing two metallic armbands that seemed to reach from her wrists to her elbows. These armbands radiated their own magic, some of which Harry recognized as strength and agility enhancement charms. He also realized that the young girl was hiding many of her physical attributes using simple glamours and physical posture, almost as if she didn't want anyone to know what she really looked like.

_"Interesting,"_ thought Harry as Angelique answered the girl's question.

Angelique was smiling at the girl as she spoke. "The Kryptonian Institute is a very exclusive school, only accepting the best and brightest. Though we have only been open for a few short years, we are always looking for new students. To date, only Mister Potter and Miss Black have been accepted as students, but if you wish to apply for acceptance I will be happy to look over your transcripts along with any letters of recommendation you might have from your current professors."

"It sounds like an interesting school," stated the blonde girl that had earlier looked up at the name of the school. "One might even say it was an offer right out of this world."

Hearing this, Harry and Kara along with Sirius and Remus instantly focused their attention on the young woman. Harry examined her closely noticing she was a very pretty young woman, but that was all he could tell about her. Something, whether it was magical or something else he didn't know, seemed to shield the girl from his abilities. As hard as he tried, Harry could not penetrate the shielding around her which left him only able to determine that she was slightly younger than him and that she carried herself with an air of determination. Noticing that he was looking at her the girl nodded her head and smiled at Harry before she lifted her right hand to tuck her long hair behind her ear.

Harry was about to look away from the girl when he noticed her hand as it moved towards her hair. The girl was wearing a strange looking emerald ring. The design of the ring was most unusual as it seemed to consist of two equal sized golden rings with a small ring held between them, holding the rings together. It was the fact that inside small ring seemed to be a ball of spinning energy that really caught Harry's attention. Unfortunately, the same force that shielded the girl from his abilities also shielded the ring, preventing him from figuring out what that green energy was.

"Yes," replied Angelique to the girl's statement. "Studying at the Kryptonian Institute truly is a fantastic opportunity."

"Though nowhere near as good as studying here at Hogwarts," interjected Dumbledore. "No school can compare to Hogwarts, with its centuries of tradition and history."

"Beauxbatons 'as just as grand a 'istory and tradition, Dum-blee-dore," countered the gigantic figure of a woman that was sitting at the staff table. "We were founded only a 'undred years after 'Ogwarts, zo you cannot zay we 'ave any less of ze 'istory and tradition."

Kara leaned closer to Harry, whispering, "That's Headmistress of Beauxbatons and she can barely speak English. That doesn't bode well for the rest of her students."

"That's no joke," replied Harry as the Headmistress continued in her horribly accented English."

"Quite right, Madame Maxine," agreed Angelique. "I myself graduated from Beauxbatons and my education there was beyond reproach."

This led to a short argument between all four Headmasters and Headmistresses present, including the previously silent Headmaster of Durmstrang. As this was going on, Harry and Kara were looking around the room at the students around them. It was the first time they had ever been around this many people their own age and it was slightly disconcerting. Occasionally either Harry or Kara would point someone out to each other using whispers too quite for anyone without their super hearing to detect. Amongst these students were several older students, including Victor Krum, a famous Quidditch star, and Fleur Delacour, the daughter of the French Minister of Magic, along with a slightly younger girl sitting next to her. Harry had also noticed the younger girl, mostly because she waved at him when he looked at her sister. She was maybe twelve years old and quite pretty for her age. He also noticed that she seemed to radiate the same type of magic that Angelique did, making Harry think she must be a Veela as well. Oddly, Fleur Delacour radiated the same type of magic, but at a much weaker level.

"That's Gabrielle Delacour," whispered Kara when she saw the young Veela girl wave at Harry. "I should probably mention that she has a crush on you."

"How do you know that?"

"She may have mentioned it, twenty or thirty time, at the fashion show I mentioned the other day," replied Kara with a smirk. "Gabrielle seems to think you are an indestructible knight in shining armor."

"Lovely," groaned Harry as the young Veela girl continued to stare at him.

"I suppose we will all just have to agree to disagree," Dumbledore was finally heard to say, drawing Harry and Kara's attention once again. "As it stands, we must inform our contestants of their first challenge. On the 24th of November, our four Champions will face their first challenge. We will not tell them what that challenge is, nor will any member of staff help them in any way. Misters Potter, Digory, and Krum along with Miss Delacour will be allowed only their wands for this competition. There will be a weighing of the wands beforehand, along with interviews with a representative of the Daily Prophet."

"What of the other European news agencies?" asked Angelique. "As the majority of the people competing in the Tournament are not from England, I'm sure their families and friends back home would like to keep abreast of what is going on."

A heavyset man in a poorly maintained quidditch uniform stood up and smiled down at Angelique, saying in the most condescending tone Harry had ever heard, "The competition is happening here, little lady."

"And that means what, that the other countries involved are not interested in how their Champions perform?" asked Angelique, her tone taking on a hard edge. "As I said before, there is only one competitor that is from here in the United Kingdom, the rest are from elsewhere."

"One?" asked Dumbledore. "Surely you are forgetting that Harry is from here as well."

"Once again, Headmaster," cut in Harry, "I am not comfortable with you using my first name, so please do not do so again. As for being from here in the United Kingdom, you are correct, however I live in France. I happen to agree with Headmistress D'Angelo that the other European countries should have press representation present during the tournament."

"I told you zis before, Dum-blee-dore," agreed Madame Maxine.

"I will be speaking with the French Minister of Magic tonight," continued Angelique. "I'm sure he can have reporters here by tomorrow.

Dumbledore was seething now, though he barely showed it. Nothing had gone right for him since the arrival of Harry Potter. The boy was supposed to fall under his control the moment he arrived, alone and without the support of his "family," but that had not happened. Instead the boy had evaded every attempt Dumbledore made to control him, and now it would be that much harder to try because the foreign press would soon have representatives watching everything that happened during the Tournament. It just wasn't fair. People were supposed to just do what Dumbledore told them too, not think for themselves. It was so infuriating that Dumbledore was literally seeing red as he finally left the Great Hall that night.

"I will see that you accomplish your tasks, Harry," growled the old man as he walked towards his office. "Even if I have to force you to do it, you will do what is for the greater good."

* * *

_AN:_

_Hello one and all!_

_Yes, I'm back with a new chapter after a long delay. Why such a long delay you ask? Simple, the real world is not always kind nor is it favorable to writing. This time of year is always bad for me when it comes to writing, mainly because of factors involving my job that prevent me from dedicating any time to my chosen hobby. The second factor is simply the number of projects I am working on at any one given time. Between my HP stories and several others, well I'm just busy, so deal with it. If you are really interested, I'm getting the next story in the Times Avenging Angel series ready._

_Okay, here's one that pissed me off, namely someone stated that they felt like a pedo for reading my story after the comment Kara makes about finding babies in the bath. Really? Obviously you've never dealt with small children as I've noticed they say the damnedest things and usually when you least expect it. As for that particular comment, I'm the one that originally said it to my grandfather when I was six. I could tell you a large number of other comments I made when I was younger, but my mother swore me to secrecy regarding most of them. Here's a hint, I write a lot of real life experiences into my stories and for the most part they are not edited for Politically Correct bullshit. If that bothers you, please don't read any more of my stories._

_Now, having gotten that minor rant off my chest, go read something and leave a review._

_Chris :)_

* * *

_Corrections: 7/25/13_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: Moonlight Introductions**

* * *

**_Earth 7/Beta_**

**_3 November, 1994_**

**_Northern Scotland_**

**_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_**

It was rather late by the time the young couple said goodbye to Angelique and Sirius. Remus would be staying as their chaperone, though Kara argued they didn't really need one. Angelique would be returning frequently as she would be present at each Tournament event, including press gatherings and assorted other functions. Sirius however would only be visiting occasionally as he had many things he had to watch over at home. The least of these was his and Harry's financial investments, but more importantly was using his contacts in the French government to keep Dumbledore from sticking his fingers where they weren't wanted. It was sad to see him go, but Harry and Kara knew their guardian would be back in an instant if they really needed him. Remus, as their "school representative" would be handling most of their dealings with Dumbledore and the Tournament in general, something he did not look forward to. Still, it needed to be done and he would see that it was done well.

Upon their return to the embassy they found that the Veela guards from Clan Leader Hippolyta had already arrived. How Angelique had managed to notify the Veela leader of Harry's acceptance of her request without anyone seeing her do it was an impressive feat. Nearly as impressive as the guards themselves. Not only was each and every woman strikingly beautiful, they were also armed to the teeth. Each woman wore a red chiton (

) that was fastened at their left shoulder and hung down leaving their right shoulder bare. Under the chiton each woman wore a silver chest plate that seemed molded to their bodies, leaving very little to the imagination, not that Harry would have dreamed of looking too closely, at least not where Kara could see him doing so. Their forearms and shins were protected by silver guards that seemed to be enchanted in a similar fashion to the ones Harry had seen the young woman wearing earlier. The Veela also wore a silver belt and traditional Greek helmet, with each woman wearing a sword on their left hip and a dagger on their right. Finally, each held a spear almost eight feet long and tipped with the sharpest looking blade Harry had ever seen.

Before leaving, Angelique had explained that the very first Veela had come from Greece and many of their traditions still reflected their early history, no matter where they might come from. It was accepted fact that the Veela clans were the original inspiration for the Greek myths regarding the savage all female warriors, the Amazons. Harry accepted this and even admired it as nothing said sexy like a powerful and beautiful woman, especially a smart one. In the years since he had first received his powers, Harry had tried to learn as much as he could about the history of Krypton. Many of the traditions had seemed odd to him, but it was interesting non-the-less. Now, faced with a group with unique traditions of their own, Harry was soon asking questions that Angelique was finding difficult to answer.

"Harry," she finally said with a laugh. "I never trained to be a Guardian, so I can't answer your questions. Why don't you ask them if you are curious?"

"In the morning," added Remus. "It's been a long day and we all need our rest. The Guardians will be here when you wake up, so lets wait till then, okay?"

Harry had accepted Remus' suggestion and soon found himself comfortably resting in his new bedroom with Kara lightly snoring on his chest. He had wanted to talk to her, but after their rather trying day Kara had soon fallen asleep. Harry didn't blame her, he was just as tired as she was, but his mind refused to stop playing over all the events of the day. There had been so many questions he wanted to ask, not to mention the information that Mister Davenport had given him that he had yet to review, but not enough time to deal with it all.

Looking down at Kara's sleeping face Harry smiled, reaching over and brushing her hair away from her face. Kara was his best friend and now his girlfriend, but most importantly she was someone he knew would always support him. That meant a lot to Harry considering he felt that she was directly responsible for saving him from his old life with the Dursleys. That was something he could never repay her for, but that he would happily spend his life trying to repay. If that meant he would be deliriously happy doing, all the better.

Still, right now he needed to do some thinking and to do that he was going to need to be outside under the stars. Seemingly it would be an easy task consisting of moving Kara over to the side of the bed and then slipping out of the room, but Kara was rather clingy when she slept. It took him nearly five minutes to pry the Kryptonian girl's arms from his waist so he could slip out of bed, but eventually he managed it without waking her. Giving her his pillow to cuddle until his return, then pulling the sheets up so she wouldn't get cold, Harry slipped into a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt before making his way outside.

Several of the Veela Guardians smiled at him as he made his way through the embassy. Harry wasn't sure yet how many had been assigned to watch over him and the others, but there must have been quite a few considering how many were on duty at this late hour. He counted at least eight of the statuesque women, including two just outside the embassy door, so he figured there must be that many working the day shift, with several more that he probably hadn't seen yet. That was quite a gift on the part of the Veela Clan Leader, something Harry was quite certain he would need to thank the woman for.

"Will you be going far, sir?" asked one of the door guards. "If so we should probably send a Guardian with you."

"No, that won't be necessary," Harry said with a smile. "I'm just walking over to the edge of the lake to do a bit of thinking."

"Alright, sir," said the other guard. "Don't stay out too long as I think Miss Black will get cold without you."

Harry blushed at this, causing both women to laugh and making him wonder how they already knew he and Kara normally slept together. "I won't be too long."

Harry walked towards the edge of the lake and was rather glad for his Kryptonian physiology as it was rather cold out. He wondered how the two door guards stayed warm in such revealing uniforms, but chalked it up to warming charms. Of course this caused a blush as well as he suddenly had an image of Kara wearing one of their uniforms running through his mind. Thankful it was almost the middle of the night with no one around to see his bodies reaction to that thought, Harry wondered why that thought excited him so much considering Kara slept in his bed naked each night.

"Guess the wrapping helps sometimes," he muttered to himself.

"Depends what's in the package," said a gravely voice from deep within the shadows.

Harry spun around and took a defensive stance as he stared into the shadows cast by several large trees near the waters edge. At first, even with his enhanced vision, he failed to find the source of the voice until he looked up into the branches of the trees and saw a very strangely dressed figure standing on one of the lower branches. The man wore a strange black suit that covered him from the top of his head to the soles of his feet in a black armored bodysuit. Two pointed ears stuck up from either sides of the man's head and only pale white light revealed where his eyes should be. On his chest was a stylized scarlet symbol that looked rather like a bat, though that was only a guess. Harry tried to use his X-Ray vision to see what the man looked like under the costume, but was shocked to find he could not see through it.

"Who are you?" demanded Harry.

"Possibly an ally," responded the man in the same gravely voice. "Though that really depends on who you really are, Harry Potter."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Harry, a little confused by the question.

The man's white eyes seemed to narrow slightly before returning to normal as he spoke. "I mean, you are more than you appear to be. Your school, the Kryptonian School for Advanced Education and Magic, does not seem to have existed before a few days ago, not to mention the fact that any mention of Krypton should not be possible on this planet."

Now Harry was getting a little nervous as this strange man seemed to know just a little too much for Harry's comfort. "I don't know what you mean and I don't think I like the fact that you seem to be checking up on me."

The man snorted, then glared back at Harry. "Harry Potter, born 31 July, 1980. Son of James and Lily Potter. Orphaned on 31 October, 1981 after your family home was attacked by Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, for reasons unknown. You were sent to live with your Muggle Aunt and Uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, where you remained until you were eight years old. Due to an incident involving you being found in the woods behind your Aunt and Uncle's home, you were sent to St. Mungo's along with an unnamed young girl and then later released into the custody of your Godfather, Sirius Black. Your Godfather then adopted the girl, Kara, and you all lived together with your Godfather's school friend, Remus Lupin."

Harry was not liking this man's knowledge of his past, even if most of it was available through press clippings and the like. He had now focused his Mage Sight and X-Ray vision on the man's mask, trying to discover who the man was. Slowly, almost like peeling the layers from an onion, he was getting a clearer image of the face behind the mask. If he had to guess, the man's mask was lined with lead, but thanks to Harry's Mage Sight lead only slowed his ability to see through it. As he worked on solving the mystery of who the man was, he pretended to care what the man had to say.

"When you were eleven you and your guardian, along with Miss Black and Mister Lupin, moved to the Black family compound in Saint Tropez, France where you began studying magic with the help of some of the best tutors money can buy," continued the man, his gravely voice starting to irritate Harry. "You received top marks from all your tutors and just last year you were allowed to sit your OWLs and A-Levels thanks to allowances made by the ICW and French Muggle government."

"You'll pardon me if I am not overly impressed," Harry finally said as his Mage Sight finally revealed the young man's face. "Evidently you can read the tabloids and you know who to contact in France to tell you what everyone else in world could have learned by reading tomorrows papers."

"Oh, I know much more than that, Harry Potter," replied the young man. "I also know that you and Miss Kara Black are not human, at least not fully human in your case. I was able to obtain the glasses you used tonight at the feast and run genetic tests on them. Kara is a full blooded Kryptonian, while you seem to be something of a hybrid, containing the best of both human and Kryptonian DNA."

That was it, now Harry was pissed. In the blink of an eye he was holding the masked young man by the throat. Harry now knew he was the same young man from earlier that night, the one that had taken interest in the name of his school. What he didn't know was how the young man even knew what a Kryptonian was, let alone how he had been able to confirm it with genetic testing, not that it mattered. It was time he and this strange chap had a little heart to heart with his uncle.

Just as Harry was about to take to the sky and fly both of them to his home in Saint Tropez, the costumed boy reached into a hidden pocket in his suit and pulled out a dull green rock. Harry instantly recognized it from Clark's records as a piece of Kryptonite. Luckily for him, and much to the costumed boy's shock, the Kryptonite barely had any effect on Harry. While the rock might be harmful to Kara, Harry was exactly what the costumed man had called him, a hybrid. His DNA contained the best of human and Kryptonian traits, and very few of their weaknesses. Yes, the Kryptonite was giving him a headache, but it was not debilitating him as Clark had said it would. Still, it needed to be gotten rid of before Kara was exposed to it.

"Sorry, little man, but that rock isn't going to work on me," growled Harry, snatching the rock from the stunned boy's hand and throwing it hard enough that it superheated in the atmosphere and disintegrated. "I don't know how you got your hands on that stone, not that it matters now, but the fact you tried to use it against me puts you squarely in my 'enemy' category. Now, who the hell are you and how the hell do you even know about Krypton?"

The figure struggled against Harry's vice like grip, he was rather strong for a normal human, but soon realized that he was no match for Harry's Kryptonian strength. Glaring at Harry, he suddenly lifted his feet and placed them on Harry's legs, trying to break free. He even tried using some type of jet motor built into the soles of his suit to pull free, but Harry's grip never lessened even as his shorts were charred. Harry started to lift them both off the ground, causing the costumed boy's eyes to go round, before he raised both hands in surrender.

"Alright," he growled. "Put us back on the ground and I'll tell you everything."

"You'll tell me everything whether I land or not," countered Harry, glaring at his prisoner. "This isn't a negotiation, this is an interrogation. Now, talk!"

"Fine!" shouted the young man. "I'm Batman."

"Nice name, but not your real one," objected Harry, reaching forward with his free hand and pulling the mask off the young man's head. "I recognized your from the feast earlier. Your lead lined mask was hard to get around, but I managed it. Now, who are you really and how do you know about me and Kara? Talk!"

The young man, now unmasked, was glaring at Harry for all it was worth, not that Harry cared. "My name is Neville Longbottom, Heir of House Longbottom and CEO of Longbottom International."

"I've heard of them," stated Harry. "Showed up in the tech market about four years ago. The company started out small, but then filed several patents that soon had them cornering the market in several high tech fields, including computer operating systems, computers, and storage devices. Last I heard, the CEO was a reclusive genius that never showed his face in public. So, how did you go from tenth richest man in the world to costumed stalker?"

"Probably the same way you got your abilities," said Neville. "When I was eight years old a strange black egg appeared in my room one night. A voice suddenly asked me if I would seek justice to avenge my parents or justice for everyone. I said I wanted justice for everyone and the next thing I knew, I'm laying on my bed with this suit laying in a chair next to my bed. Since that night I've trained my ass off to fill the roll of Batman here in our world. Now I've got not one but two Kryptonians showing up out of the blue and I'm asking myself what they want and why they're here, on Earth."

Harry remembered that there had been other drones the night he received his powers, but he had always assumed that they contained the same gift he had been given. He and Kara had long ago planned for a possible confrontation with another Kryptonian empowered individual, but it now seemed they had been wrong. There were no more Kryptonians about to pop out of the woodwork. No, there were costumed weirdoes out there. Harry wasn't sure which was worse.

"That doesn't explain how you know about me and Kara," countered Harry, "or for that matter why you decided to start running around in a fancy costume, scaring people?"

"That's none of your business," growled Neville. "I have my secrets, and they will remain my secrets. Now tell me, how and why are you here?"

Harry's first thought was to force the young man to tell him all his secrets, but realized it would be rather hypocritical of him considering there were secrets he would not share. Yes, Neville's attitude grated on Harry's nerves, not to mention the fact the boy had attempted to attack him, but could he say that it was unwarranted? Obviously Neville knew something about Kryptonians and how to deal with them should it be needed, so was it really that unreasonable to think he wouldn't react as he had when Harry suddenly attacked him. No, it wasn't unreasonable at all.

"You want to know how I got here," answered Harry, loosening his grip slightly. "Same damn way you did. I was found by one of those eggs and it gave me my abilities. That was the same night I met Kara and was rescued from the Dursleys."

"So, she's from the same Universe as this suit?" asked Neville.

Harry nodded. "If I had to guess, I would say yes. We have access to an information source that confirmed she was originally found by a group of individuals right before their Universe was destroyed. They managed to save her from the destruction, but not themselves for one reason or another. I don't know anything about your suit, maybe it was in one of the drones I saw leaving her shuttle that night, I just don't know."

"How many drones did you see that night?" Neville asked, his tone sounding worried. "We need to know how many others are out there."

Harry tried to remember, the memory was rather foggy due to his injuries that night. "I think there were six of them, including the one that gave me my powers."

"Six," muttered Neville. "That would be you, me, Luna, and Hermione. That leaves two more."

"Wait!" exclaimed Harry. "You know two more people that were found by the drones?"

"Yeah," Neville confirmed. "Luna Lovegood, she was the girl that commented about your school being out of this world, she found a ring belonging to the Green Lantern Corps along with a modified Power Lantern to recharge it. Then there is Hermione Granger, the girl that said she had never heard of your school before. She won't tell me what all she got from the drone, but I know she wears the magical bracelets of Wonder Woman, a hero that was known to the original Batman."

"Wow," Harry said with a sigh, setting Neville down on the ground and releasing him. "What does this all mean? Did those heroes do this on purpose, or was it just a fluke? Are we supposed to take up their roles here?"

Neville thought about it for a moment before walking over to where Harry had tossed his mask. Picking it up and putting it back on, Neville just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what they intended though my own source of information about them doubts they had any nefarious plans, but how can we really know? I think we just have to do what we think is right with the abilities and powers we have been given. I know I will use this opportunity to make sure that the wicked do not prosper due to my lack of action and I believe Luna and Hermione feel the same way. The question is, what will you and Kara do?"

Harry thought about that for a moment, turning back to look out at the lake. "I really don't know right now. I've got a lot on my shoulders, what with Dumbledore trying to control me and planning for the eventual return of Voldemort. I just want a normal life, but I'm not going to turn my back on people in need. I don't know, but I hope we can work together if the need arises."

Harry turned back around, ready to hold his hand out in friendship, only to find that Neville had vanished. He scanned the area only to find a single scarp of parchment laying on the ground where Neville had been standing a few minutes before. Picking it up, Harry read it and smiled.

**I work best alone, but if you need me you know how to find me.**

"That I do," Harry said with a smile. "Maybe things are looking up."

The next morning, after explaining to Kara what had happened the night before, the young couple made their way down to breakfast anxious about telling Remus the news. They were rather surprised to find Remus sitting at the kitchen table with the blonde girl from the night before. Harry remembered Neville telling him about the girl, Luna Lovegood, and the fact that she also had been gifted a strange power by one of the drones. He had no idea what a Green Lantern was and with Clark being away again, scanning for signs of any of the races his original counterpart had known, Harry had no way of knowing what she was capable of.

"Here they are, Miss Lovegood," Remus said when the two entered the room. "Harry, Kara, this is Luna Lovegood. She's a third year student at Hogwarts. She came by this morning to talk to us about possibly transferring schools."

"Among other things," added Luna as she sipped her tea. "I think Harry and Kara probably also have some questions for me, especially after Harry's meeting with Neville last night."

Harry and Kara just stared at the young woman for a few moments. Each was trying to figure her out, especially since she wore such a vapidly happy smile on her face and yet her eyes held a depth of determination that was slightly disturbing. Then there was the fact that that the girl knew about Harry's meeting the previous evening, which surprised Harry as he had not sensed anyone else around them as he spoke with Neville. It was just too strange. Holding out a chair for Kara, Harry realized that this was just another example of how strange his life really was.

"You're right, Luna," agreed Harry. "We do have questions for you."

"Well that's fine then," said Luna with a little smile. "Shall we begin with how I know about your meeting last night?"

Harry nodded, reaching over and taking Kara's hand under the table as Luna graced them both with a smile as she began explaining. "I tend to keep an eye on Neville when he wanders off at night. He's far too serious about what he feels is his 'mission to protect the innocent and defenseless from the wicked and unjust.' He can be such a drama queen sometimes. Imagine my surprise last night when I saw him sneaking off towards your lovely abode, I really must speak with the Veela who designed it, and then watched as he attempted to intimidate you. I was doubly surprised when you turned the encounter against him and forced him to reveal as much as he did."

"What's she talking about, Harry?" asked Remus, worry evident in his voice.

"I went out last night to get some fresh air," answered Harry, trying to calm his adopted Uncle's nerves. "While I was out I had a confrontation with someone else that received a gift from one of the drones."

Upon hearing this, Remus looked anything but relieved as his face went pale. "Is he another Kryptonian? Is it like we feared?"

Harry shook his head saying, "No, he was not given Kryptonian abilities, but he did receive a suit that grants him certain abilities. He calls himself Batman and trie his damnedest to intimidate me with some theatrics and an attempt at a gruff voice. I wasn't all that impressed."

"Yes, Batman," said Luna taking a sip of her steaming cup of tea before continuing, "you must understand that Neville had a rather rough childhood after his parents were attacked a few nights after your's were killed, Harry. He was sent off to live with his paternal Grandmother, Augusta Longbottom, but she was old and set in her ways. She did her best, but much of the time Neville was left to fend for himself, especially when certain members of his family tried to 'encourage' him into performing accidental magic. I only know of some of their attempts, mostly due to my own father being distantly related to the Longbottom family. The fact that his own uncle nearly killed the poor boy on several occasions, just to see if Neville was a Squib or not, is truly shocking."

Kara interrupted at this point, raising her hand and receiving a nod from Luna before asking what a Squib was.

"A Squib is a person born to a magical family, usually a Pureblood family, that lacks the ability to perform magic," answered Remus. "Most older Pureblood families disown Squibs, striking their name from the family records, if the child has not shown some sign of magic by the time they turn nine."

Luna nodded at the explanation and then picked up her story again. "Fortunately for Neville, he showed his first indication of accidental magic the night before his eighth birthday. I do not know the details, but my mother and father both hinted that one of his uncles made certain threats to the boy that enraged him so badly that his magic lashed out and broke the fools arms and legs. It was several weeks later that it was discovered in one of the journals kept by Neville's mother that they had bound his magic due to the astounding power of his outbursts of accidental magic. Needless to say, his grandmother and family were ashamed that they had never checked to see if there might be extenuating circumstances causing his lack of magic."

"How does this explain anything about how you know about our meeting last night?" asked Harry, getting a little frustrated by the rambling history lesson.

"Patience, Harry," replied Luna with a calm smile. "I'm almost at your answer. Now, as I was saying, Neville's family was deeply shamed they had failed to look into the cause of his situation, but none more-so than his grandmother. As it turns out, she had been present at the binding, but in her old age and grief over the loss of her son she had completely forgotten about it."

Luna paused taking another sip of her tea before continuing again. "Imagine the guilt she felt knowing that for the almost seven years she had been looking after Neville, she had allowed his near constant abuse because she could not put her grief behind her. Almost overnight she went from acting as a controlling force in Neville's life to being his most attentive caregiver, almost to the point of becoming a servant in her own home. That of course was only the start of the changes in Neville's life because the very night he managed to break the bonds around his magical core was also the same night he was found by the drone containing that suit he loves so much."

"Yes," Harry interrupted again. "I know all about the drones, now what does this have to do with how you know about our meeting?"

"Is he always this testy when he first gets out of bed?" Luna asked Kara, surprising the young Kryptonian girl. "The answer to you question is that on that very same night, a little girl was doing her best to restart her mother's heart after the girl's mother miscast a new spell she was designing. That girl was absolutely terrified, but was so focused and determined to will her mother's heart to restart that she didn't even notice a small green egg suddenly appear in her hand. When the egg suddenly opened and a ring was placed on the girl's finger, a green bolt of electricity suddenly shot from her hand and hit her mother's chest. The sudden jolt restarted her mother's heart, thus saving the woman's life. I, of course, was that little girl."

"Wow!" exclaimed Kara. "You saved your mom with the gift the drone gave you, what was it?"

"Yes, I saved her that time," replied Luna. "Two years later though I was forced to watch as she was killed by yet another spell she was experimenting with. There was nothing I could do to save her that time."

Kara's excitement instantly vanished as she rushed around the table and hugged Luna tightly. "I'm so sorry. Are you ok?"

Luna looked a bit shocked by Kara's sudden show of caring, but then she hugged the girl right back. "It was a long time ago, Kara. My mother died doing what she loved. I have accepted that fact, even if I don't always like it."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Harry said as Kara made her way back to her chair. "Neville said you had been gifted with a ring from the Green Lantern Corps, but I have no idea what that means."

"Yes, my ring," Luna said with a sad smile, holding the ring up so that everyone could see it. "The Green Lanterns were a police force spanning the entire Universe, or at least their own Universe. Each Green Lantern was gifted with a Power Ring that allowed them to control a certain form of energy. Use of the Rings in combination with that energy allowed the Green Lantern Corps to do the most wondrous of things, but not even their Rings were powerful enough to stop the destruction of their Universe."

Luna's ring suddenly flashed a brilliant green and when the light had faded she was sitting before them wearing a black skin tight body suit that covered her completely, leaving only her hands and head uncovered. Over the body suit she wore a black and emerald green sleeveless leather jacket, upon which a white symbol similar to the one on her ring rested over her heart. Her long blonde hair was now tied back by a green ribbon and her face was partially concealed by a black domino mask. Even her eyes, formerly a dark grey, were now glowing emerald pools of energy.

"Cool," whispered Kara. "She's got green eyes like you, Harry!"

Harry rolled said green eyes, then focused back on Luna. "Okay, so you are one of these Green Lanterns and I assume you used your abilities as one to follow Neville last night, so I have to ask, what do you want now?"

Luna smiled and allowed her costume to fade away, leaving her back in the school robes she had been wearing previously. "Well, I would like some more tea, and then I was thinking we all get to know each other and become super best friends!"

"Not quite the answer I was expecting," mumbled Remus as he poured Luna another cup of tea.

"But a true one all the same," replied Luna with a wide grin on her face. "I know that once we get to know each other we will be the best of friends, but first it's time for another story."

Pointing her hand at the end of the table farthest away from them, a green beam of light shot from her ring and coalesced on into a floating globe of energy. "The orb is an avatar for the Artificial Intelligence inside my ring. I call him Bert."

"Yes, no matter how many times I've asked you not to," said the cultured voice of a man coming from the orb. "I am an immensely powerful construct, designed by the most advanced minds of my Universe, and you insist on calling me 'Bert.' I am ever so delighted."

"Oh lighten up, Bert," responded Luna with a mischievous smirk. "Why don't you tell my new friends here what we've discovered over the last few years?"

Harry, Kara, and Remus just stared open mouthed as the orb began to relay its information. "Upon awakening when Luna first used the power inside me, I immediately attempted to contact my creators, the Guardians. The Guardians' home world of Oa has existed for countless eons in my original Universe, so I had no reason to doubt its continued existence. As it turns out, I was mistaken in my assumption."

"They destroyed themselves or something?" asked Remus.

"No," replied the construct. "From what I was able to determine, they never existed in this Universe. For whatever reason, at some point in the distant past there was a change between this Universe and the one I originally came from that sent the two developing in drastically different ways. While some things, such as Earth and the evolution of Humanity remained the same, Oa and the Guardians never existed. The far ranging results of this fact are beyond my abilities to compute. However, it is clear to me that this is not the only differences between this Universe and the one I originally came from."

Luna took up the story at this point. "After my mother's death my father withdrew from the world, leaving me mostly on my own. Sometimes it would be days before he noticed my presence. It was then that Bert suggested we go on a little trip to check up on some of the old allies of the Green Lanterns. So, one morning I kissed my father goodbye and Bert and I set off to explore the Universe."

"You what?" asked Harry. "How is that possible? I know for a fact that only one shuttle arrived here, so where did you get the ship from?"

"No ship is needed, Mister Potter," answered the construct. "I was designed by the Guardians to allow my bearer to handle the needs of a rather large section of the Universe. To that end I can enable my bearer to understand the languages of any race and travel across vast stellar distances in a fraction of the time it would take without my help. I can cover the width of this galaxy in a matter of hours, so what need do you think my bearer has for a mere ship?"

"Cocky little ball of static you've got there, Luna," Kara said with a giggle.

"He gets a little full of himself sometimes, which is why I try to keep him grounded by calling him Bert," admitted Luna. "The point here is we traveled to all the major worlds from Bert's Universe. We discovered that about half of them did not exist in this Universe. The half that did exist were nowhere near as technologically advanced as we expected. Only a handful of the races had even discovered spaceflight, and none of them had the ability to travel to other planets, let alone other stars or galaxies."

Bert cut in at this point with the exact statistics, but Luna only let him ramble for a few moments before continuing. "The one common element all those races had in common was their occasional interaction with the Guardians and by extension the Green Lantern Corps. I think the races are developing slower in this Universe because they do not have the Guardians to inspire and guide them."

"That makes sense, Harry," agreed Remus. "Our own information source would probably agree with you. He has attempted on numerous occasions to contact Kara's home world, Krypton, but has never received a reply."

"Yes, Krypton," Luna said with a thoughtful look. "Krypton was an old world, much like Oa, but they never had much interaction with the Corps of the Guardians. I'm sorry to say that I never even thought to check to see whether they existed in this Universe."

"Could we?" asked Kara. "Check on them I mean?"

Remus laid a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder saying, "Clark is already looking into that. Let's wait till he gets back before we rush off to the other side of the Universe."

"Fine," groaned Kara, slouching a little in her chair and pouting.

"I wouldn't be able to check until the Christmas break anyway," consoled Luna. "Contrary to Bert's opinion on the subject, the trip would take too long for me not to be missed. If your friend Clark does not find the answers you seek during his trip, I promise we can go check on Krypton over the holiday."

"You can take more than one person when you travel like that?" asked Harry.

Bert made a dismissive sound before saying, "My bearer could take this entire castle if need be."

Luna just rolled her eyes and held her Ring back out, seeming to suck the ball of energy back into it. "He's just showing off now. He has developed a bit of an over inflated ego since discovering he is the only Power Ring active currently."

"What do you mean by currently, Miss Lovegood?" asked Remus.

Luna seemed to mentally debate her answer for a moment, then held her hand out and revealed three more Power Rings. "Bert has two sets of memories. He remembers being worn by a man named Hal Jordan and a man named Kyle Rayner. Oddly, some of his memories overlap, making him think that he is an amalgam of the rings that those two men once wore."

"How does that explain these other Rings?" asked Kara, pointing to the Rings in Luna's palm.

Luna closed her hand, causing the other rings to vanish. "A normal Power Ring has many restrictions. The three most important restrictions are the need to recharge the Ring every twenty-four hours, the inability to create permanent energy constructs, and the inability to take a sentient life. Bert does not have these restrictions. From Hal Jordan's Ring Bert gained the ability to make permanent copies of himself. Like Kyle Rayner's ring, Bert only needs to recharge once his reserves run low, which depends on how long I charge him and what I use his power to do."

"So, you plan on making copies of Bert and rebuilding the Green Lantern Corps?" asked Remus.

"I am debating it," replied Luna. "Bert has told me many stories about the Corps and the Guardians that have both inspired and terrified me. I honestly don't know what I should do and I fear what might happen should a Power Ring fall into the wrong hands. Not to mention that I currently have no way of testing possible candidates to become Green Lanterns. In Bert's original Universe they had access to an individual that could handle such matters, but either he does not exist in this Universe or I have yet to find him."

"Is this Universe really that different from the other one?" Harry asked afterLuna had seemed to drift off into her thoughts.

"Yes," replied Luna with an air of absolute certainty. "Bert has explained to me the theory behind Multiple Universes and how they could possibly exist. Just based on what little we know, it is obvious that the two Universes diverged so long ago that it's possible it happened at the very moment of creation, or big bang, take your pick. I can't say they are opposites of each other, because they aren't. It's more like they were reflections of each other as seen through a funhouse mirror."

"You said earlier that the Green Lantern Corps of that Universe tried to stop its destruction," stated Remus. "Could what happened there happen here?"

Luna shrugged her shoulders, "I have no clue, and neither does Bert. He says that Universe was annihilated when its Antimatter equivalent overwhelmed it, but so far we have found no traces of Antimatter present in this Universe. I'll take that as a good sign for now, at least until some moronic scientist decides to make some artificially."

The four of them sat around for another hour, talking mainly about lighter topics. Finally Luna made her farewells, heading back to Hogwarts to get some lunch. Harry and Kara also decided to eat lunch, continuing their conversation with Lupin until he announced that he had errands to run before tea time. The two teenagers spent a little while getting to know the Veela Guards, though more often then not the beautiful and deadly women would just remind the two that while they might not have classes today, the Guards still had their duties to perform. Eventually Harry decided he wanted to review some of his schoolwork while Kara decided to explore the school grounds. With a smile and a kiss, Harry headed off towards his room as Kara headed outside.

It was a beautiful day outside, the air was crisp and cold, but the sun was shining brightly. Kara took this as a good sign as she made her way around the Black Lake. She chuckled as she watched several young couples walking hand in hand nearby, seeking secluded areas to "warm themselves up." It was funny to watch the couples sneaking off into woods to be alone with their partners, each looking as if they were the first people to ever think of the idea. Actually, Kara wondered if maybe later Harry would be interested in doing the same.

Soon Kara found herself at the furthest shore of the lake from the school and had to admit that the massive castle looked rather majestic in the distance. She wondered if things had been different, mainly Dumbledore not trying to interfere in Harry's life, if the two of them would have attended classes at Hogwarts like normal students. Probably not given the nature of their abilities, but it was a nice daydream. These thoughts were interrupted when she heard the sound of someone moving around in the woods behind her. Moving as quietly as possible, Kara snuck closer to the sound and activated her Telescopic vision.

The sight before her was rather strange, even for an alien teenaged girl from another Universe. A vaguely familiar young woman was currently performing several martial arts katas while standing in a small clearing. While that was not too unusual for Kara, given the fact she normally did much the same thing at home, what the girl was wearing was quite...interesting. The young woman stood about a head taller than Kara, making her about Harry's height and was, for lack of a better description, classically beautiful with her toned body and delicate facial features. She had long hair, the tip just reaching her waist, that looked like it had been spun from purest black silk as it streamed behind her as she moved. However, as beautiful as the girl was, it was her attire that really caught Kara's attention, not to mention making her a little jealous.

The young woman wore what looked like a strapless one piece bathing suit that just barely covered her well developed chest. It also barely covered her bum with its French cut legs and revealing backside due to how much the girl was moving about. The coloring and pattern of the suit looked like it was based on the British flag and along with a pair of thigh high red boots, gave the young woman a very striking look. Kara noticed that the girl wore a gold belt around her waist that looked similar to what the Veela Guard wore, with some slight differences. Across her chest was a stylized golden eagle that seemed to act as both protection and decoration. Also the girl wore a golden tiara with a large ruby red star in the middle of it and two silver arm bands that covered her from wrists to elbows and seemed to be made of solid metal with no way to remove them.

The last two items Kara noticed were the weapons the girl was practicing with. In the girls right hand was a silver and gold sword which was also very similar to what the Veela Guards used. Then in the girl's left hand was a golden lasso, or maybe a whip. Kara noticed that he girl would use the lasso to grab things from the edges of the clearing, then pull them towards her at incredible speeds before using the sword to slice them in half. It was an interesting way to train, but Kara thought it a little lacking compared to her spars with her tutors and Harry. Her tutors had always told her that a person only really improved when faced with a real opponent. Kara was so caught up in her thoughts that she only had a moment's warning before a golden lasso wrapped around her and she was pulled through the air to land at the feet of a now furious looking young woman.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

* * *

1 Chiton: Tunic worn by Greek men and women in ancient time. Made of two rectangles of linen sewn together to form a tube that was then belted at the waist.

* * *

_AN: Delayed, a pain to get right, but not forgotten._

_Chris :)_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Princess & Pensive**

* * *

**_Earth 7/Beta_**

**_4 November, 1994_**

**_Northern Scotland_**

**_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_**

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded the young woman standing over Kara.

Not really being intimidated by the young woman that had just captured her, Kara just smiled and held her hand out for help to stand. "Love your costume, did you make it yourself? I've got to ask, do you use a sticking charm to keep your breasts from popping out, or is that what the golden eagle thing is for? Isn't the way it rides up in back uncomfortable? Help me stand, please?"

The dark haired girl just stared down at Kara for a moment looking extremely confused before she finally took Kara's hand and helped the blonde to her feet, saying, "You're like Luna. She's the only other person to ask me that question. I swear, she just loves to embarrass me."

"I do the same to Harry most mornings," Kara said with a smirk. "I'm Kara Black, by the way, though I'm sure you knew that from last night. You were the girl under the glamours that said you had never heard of our school before, right?"

Sighing, the dark haired beauty walked over to a tree stump where she had a picnic basket. "Yes, that was me. My name is Hermione Granger and it's a pleasure to officially meet you."

Opening the picnic basket Hermione pulled out a non-magical bottled water, opened it, and chugged it down before speaking again. "Now, if you don't mind answering a few questions for me? Namely, how did you find me here and what are you going to do know that you have found me?"

Kara was about to answer, she felt a very strong compulsion to tell the truth, when she glanced down and noticed Hermione's golden lasso was still wrapped around her leg. Using her Mage Sight she looked closer at the lasso and had to admit that the rope was probably one of the most magical items she had ever seen. Kneeling down, Kara slipped the lasso off her leg before smiling up at a rather surprised Hermione.

"I'm guessing it compels the person it holds to tell the truth?" Kara asked as Hermione coiled the lasso up and hung it on her belt and nodded. "Neat trick, but you don't need it with me or Harry, we'll tell you anything you want to know. Well, within reason."

Lifting up into the air, just a few inches, Kara smiled at the shocked brunette before landing again. "I found you while I was out enjoying a leisurely flight around the lake. As for what I'm going to do about what I've learned, well I was actually going to see if you would be interested in sparing with Harry and I?"

"You barely know me, yet you are going to ask me to spar with you and your friend?" asked Hermione, looking rather skeptical. "Are you always this trusting or are you just that sure you could stop me from hurting you if I got close enough?"

To prove her point, Hermione walked over to a large tree and without any seeming effort, wrapped her arms around it and pulled it from the ground before putting it back down. Kara just snorted before she walked over to another large tree and did exactly the same thing. Both girls looked at each other for a moment before the started to giggle.

"We never speak of this again," said Kara with a smirk. "This is more Harry's kind of thing, very manly and testosterone induced."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "I know, Neville tends to do this type of thing a lot. I won't mention it again, but my question is still valid."

"Honestly, I trust you because Luna mentioned you and she seems to trust you," Kara answered as Hermione pulled her wand from under one of her arm bands and started cleaning up the traces of her training. "Harry trusts Luna, says he has a good feeling about her, and he also met Neville last night who mentioned you as well."

"Can someone please explain to me what the use of having a secret identity is if your friends spill your secret to everyone they meet?" Hermione complained, sounding rather frustrated as she finished cleaning up. "First Neville figures it out in first year when he saved me from a troll. Well, he says he saved me, but in reality I had already knocked the poor thing unconscious with its own weapon before Neville showed up. Still, it was rather cute how he came rushing in to save me. Then the next year Luna comes up and asks me how long I've had the powers of Wonder Woman. She and..."

Hermione went quiet, her expression turning sad as she stared down at her hands as they clenched and unclenched. "Luna had a friend, she didn't have any powers unlike like the rest of us, well except for being a very powerful witch. Her name was Ginny Weasley and she was a good person and became a good friend, but she died and none of us were able to save her. We all knew something was wrong because sometimes she just seemed to pull away from us and over time it got worse and worse. You could see she was afraid, but it was like someone was forcing Ginny to avoid us. Luna and I had been attacked just days before she vanished and ended up petrified in the Hospital Wing. When we were finally cured we found out that Ginny had been taken somewhere called the Chamber of Secrets and Dumbledore had declared her dead. Luna says that Dumbledore did something to hide the Chamber from everyone, preventing us from remembering anything other than the fact the entrance was in a bathroom. No one can remember which bathroom it was, not even the two witnesses, and we've searched them all. Neville took it as a personal insult that he was never able to find the Chamber, blaming himself because he was sitting with Luna and I when Ginny was taken. It's really a moot point now, but it would be nice to be able to take Ginny's body home to her family."

"That's horrible," Kara said, walking over and putting a comforting hand on Hermione's arm. "You know, Harry has a knack for finding things, maybe he could help you all to find her again?"

"Really?" Hermione asked, looking at Kara with hope in her eyes. "That would mean ever so much to Ginny's family. They've been devastated since her death, especially her mum and the three youngest boys. Ron has just become a lump since she died, not that he wasn't pretty much a lump to begin with, but it's worse now. Then there is Fred and George, they are always running around the castle trying to figure out where she is, but so far they've had no luck. I think we've all spent our time trying to figure out a way to get her back, but all we've managed so far was to save a few unlucky souls from the more disreputable groups here at the school."

"So, you became the hero of the weak and defenseless?" asked Kara with a smile. "How does that work and how did you even get your powers in the first place?"

"I was a rather plain looking little girl when I was little," explained Hermione after thinking about it for a moment. "I was short, a little chubby, with buck teeth, and frizzy muddy brown hair. As you can imagine, I had very few friends and when you added how much smarter I was than the other children at my school, it was even worse. The way they treated me along with my own insecurities just pushed me further and further into the world of my books."

Hermione sighed before continuing on. "I was very mature for my age, mostly because I felt that was what my parents expected from me. They would even leave me at home by myself during the day, though whether that was because of my maturity or because they couldn't be bothered to hire a sitter, I can't say. I just remember that one day I had setup a tea party for my stuffed animals in the back yard. I would never have dreamed of doing it when my parents were present, but as they were at their practice I felt it was safe to express my need for friends with my favorite dolls."

"That's when it happened," she continued after a short pause. "I was just serving Mrs. Austin, a rather worn and frayed teddy bear named after a favored author, when a strange egg shaped object suddenly dropped out of the sky and into my lap. I was rather surprised, seeing as how it wasn't Easter and yet I had a multicolored egg just appear for no reason. I was in the process of examining the egg's strange design, a perfect replica of my chest guard, when a voice asked me if I would stand for the rights of the week or would I subjugate them. I of course said, without a hint of doubt, that I would stand up for the rights of the weak and was suddenly bathed in a beautiful golden light. I felt myself falling backwards off my little chair, landing flat on my back on the bare Earth. Before I could get back up the ground seemed to swallow me up, not like sinking, but like I was passing through it. It is hard to describe, there is really nothing that compares to the sensation, and the fact I was a small child at the time did not help. I was of course frightened, terrified really, especially when I felt my body begin to dissolve around me."

Hermione shuddered at the memory, then continued. "I was still there, I could feel it all, but my body was gone. Then, just as quickly as my body vanished I felt a new one forming around me. This body felt stronger than my old one. A moment later I rose back out of the ground and found myself standing naked in the middle of my back yard. I looked down at myself and was shocked by what I saw. Gone was the short little pudgy girl and in her place was a tall, for my age, girl with not an ounce of baby fat on her. I ran into the house, scared beyond anything I had ever felt before."

"Of course my fear didn't last long," Hermione said with a smirk. "I think it was the lack of pain that reassured me that whatever had happened to me wasn't a bad thing. I immediately ran to my room to look at myself in the mirror. There in my reflection was the girl I had always secretly wanted to be. I was tall with long straight hair and my previously buck toothed smile was gone, replaced with perfectly straight teeth of the most brilliant white. Best of all, I was pretty! Not just cute, but pretty! It was amazing and I loved it! I spent the rest of the day running around the house starkers looking in every mirror I could find, praying it wasn't a dream."

"What happened when your parents got home?" asked Kara.

"Not a thing," answered Hermione with a sad smile. "It was almost a week later before they realized something had happened to their daughter. I would like to think they were distracted by work, but the truth is they just didn't pay much attention to me. Finally, after running around the house and backyard naked for a week, none of my clothes fit me any longer, my mother noticed that my clothes hamper was empty when it came time to do the wash. She came upstairs to scold me for not putting my clothes in the hamper and found me sitting naked in my favorite chair reading a book."

Kara snickered at the image, it was one of her favorite means of passing time with a book before joining Harry in bed for the night. "What happened then?"

"Well, of course I got a lecture for not covering up, but other than that it seemed my antics were still not enough to draw my mother's full attention," replied Hermione. "My mother insisted I at least wear a dressing gown or summer dress, but other than that I don't think she cared what I wore, so long as she didn't have to clean it. I don't think my parents really knew what I looked like prior to my change, so neither of them noticed anything. I was confused at the lack of reaction, other than her dragging me to the shopping center to get a new wardrobe, but even more so when I got to school at the start of the new term. Suddenly everyone wanted to be my friend, especially the boys in my class. That's when I learned an important lesson."

"Which was?"

"Men are idiots when it comes to pretty girls," Hermione said with a smirk. "It's also when I started dressing frumpy, trying to hide the changes I had gone through. I had started out wearing nicer clothing to school, trying to look more like the other girls in my class. I started fitting in better with them and was so happy, but then something happened that changed it all. One of my teachers seemed a bit too interested in me after my change, it all came to a head when he kept me after class one afternoon saying he wanted to talk to me about one of my assignments."

Hermione stood up and started pacing back and forth, a look of anger and frustration evident on her face. "I still remember that day perfectly. We were sitting in his office, I was wearing a cute little jumper and matching skirt, and he offered me a seat in front of his desk. I thought he would sit behind his desk, but instead he sat down in the chair next to me. He started telling me that a pretty girl, such as myself, didn't really need to focus so hard on my schoolwork. In fact, according to him, I should be more concerned with boys and fashion than with reading about advanced subjects. Then, just when I was thinking it could get no worse, he leaned forward and put his hand on my knee and told me that if I was friendlier to him, I wouldn't even have to turn in my homework anymore."

"What did you do?" asked Kara, concern mixed with outrage clear in her voice.

"I was scared at first," answered Hermione. "I mean I was still only nine years old and here was my teacher, a man I had looked up to, touching me in a way that was making me very uncomfortable. I just sat there stunned for a moment and he must have taken that as a sign that I agreed with what he was saying because he started moving his hand further up my leg."

"The arse!" growled Kara.

"That's when I got angry and hit him," Hermione said with a rather feral grin on her face. "I just balled up my fist and hit him square in the jaw. Now if a normal nine year-old had done that I'm sure he would have just laughed, but I was not a normal girl. I knocked him clean out of his seat and across the room, burying him half in and half out of the wall. Then I got up and stormed out of the room, never once looking back to see how badly he was hurt. I ran home, never stopping till I had made it to my room where I collapsed on my bed and sobbed my eyes out. Eventually, once the tears stopped flowing, I made my way downstairs"

"I waited downstairs for my parents to come home that night," Hermione continued after a short pause. "The entire time I was replaying the situation in my head trying to figure out what I had done to cause what happened. I was a mature child, but rather than realizing my teacher was a pedophile I instead convinced myself that my new appearance was the cause of the situation. This twisted bit of logic was only reinforced when my parents got home and I told them what had happened. Imagine my surprise when my father blamed me for everything, while my mother was concerned more about the scandal affecting their practice than how I was currently feeling."

"They what!" demanded Kara.

"Well, let me rephrase that," Hermione said, holding up her hand to stave off Kara's anger at her parents. "They did not blame me for everything, they still thought the teacher was a pedophile, but they gave the impression they thought the situation would have never happened if I wasn't so pretty. The next day they filed charges against him, to which he immediately filed counter charges against me. Finally it was decided that he would 'retire' early and I would seek my further education in a new school, with neither side talking to the press regarding what had happened."

"That's all they did to him?" asked Kara. "And to punish you for his actions? That's just wrong!"

Hermione nodded saying, "Yes, it was wrong, but I had broken his jaw, so the man's barrister claimed I had overreacted and the school board felt I might repeat that behavior if the situation, or the like, happened again. They didn't want to have to deal with it, so they swept it under the rug and got rid of both of us."

"The next week I started in a new school," she said with a frown. "I decided in order to prevent the situation from ever happening again I would hide myself behind the facade of my old looks and behavior. I started wearing frumpy clothing and letting my hair go uncombed, causing it to become a frizzy mess, and I began slouching. Added to my bookworm tendencies, it made the perfect disguise. No one noticed me, something my parents seemed to think was for the best considering the previous events. I became isolated at school, focusing only on my education and books as much as I could. My home life was a little better as I think my parents completely forgot about me once I started hiding my appearance."

"Okay," interrupted Kara. "I probably would have done the same thing if that happened to me, but how do you go from being a frumpy bookworm to a scantily clad warrior princess?"

Hermione stopped pacing, looking down at her feet to hide the sudden blush on her face. "I might have wanted to look frumpy at school, but I still wanted to feel pretty. I would get home, usually several hours before my parents, and immediately brush my hair and clean myself up. I would put on my prettiest outfits, of which I had many by that time, and prance around the house like a little princess until just before my parents got home. As I got older I started to look more mature I started spending more time naked in my room."

"What were you doing naked in your room?" asked Kara with a knowing smirk.

Hermione blushed even darker this time before she practically shrieked, "Not that, you pervert! I was only ten or eleven at the time! I just liked the way I looked, maybe a little too much. I guess I started becoming a little vain, but I was afraid to go outside. The fact is, until I received my Hogwarts letter, I hid in my room most nights, naked as the day I was born and either doing homework or admiring myself in the mirror."

"Doesn't sound too healthy to me," voiced Kara with a concerned tone.

"And it wasn't," agreed Hermione. "I'm rather glad I received my Hogwarts letter when I did, because at the rate I was going I was becoming a narcissist. The night before I was to leave for Hogwarts, I saw the little egg thing again. It was floating over my bed when I got home from school and the moment I approached it, it burst into a cloud of golden dust. I half expected to find myself turned back into the frumpy little girl I had once been, but that wasn't what happened."

Tapping her arm bands, belt, chest guard, and tiara she continued. "These suddenly appeared on my bed, along with my sword and lasso. The egg was gone and I've never seen it again, but that didn't seem to matter to me. Without even thinking I put on the armbands, they just seemed to slip like cloth over my hands, but once on they refused to come off. The rest of it I dumped into the bottom of my new school trunk, I didn't touch any of it again until a year later when Luna and Ginny came over. That night the three of us created my costume, the one I still wear, and Wonder Woman was born."

Finishing her story, Hermione looked up at Kara and asked, "So, you know my story, care to share yours?"

"Well," began Kara with a smile, "mine started with a very cute boy waking me up from a magical slumber."

Kara told her new friend about her history, only leaving out what few details of the story she didn't know or were not her's to tell. Once her story was done the two girls sat and talked for a little longer before Hermione stated she needed to return to the school before anyone noticed she was missing. They had agreed to meet up again with everyone on Friday evening to see about searching for Ginny's body with Harry's help. They would also use the time to learn a bit more about each other, not to mention some special guests that Hermione wanted to invite. When asked who she would be bringing, Hermione refused to say on the grounds that unlike some people, she would not reveal anyone's secret without their permission. Kara couldn't really argue the point and agreed to be patient until that Friday night.

"Oh, Kara," Hermione said as she turned to walk back to the school, "just so you know, you're not the only one that can fly."

With that said, Hermione took to the air waving as she headed back to Hogwarts. Kara just laughed as she took to the sky as well and headed back to the Veela Embassy. She made a mental note to introduce Hermione to the Veela guards considering the similarities between their armor and weapons. Maybe there was a connection between the two, or maybe not, but it would be interesting to see. Not to mention it would be nice to have more girls around that she could relate to, unlike the normal girls she usually met but could never really befriend because of all the secrets she had to keep from them.

After being greeted by the guards at the door, Kara made her way up to Harry's room, looking for him to share what she had learned. She was surprised to find his room empty, but noticed a strange stone bowl on his desk that seemed to contain an oddly glowing silver fluid. Being slightly curious as to what the liquid was, Kara leaned over the bowl and suddenly found herself falling forward into it. Panic filled her mind for a moment as she suddenly found herself standing beside Harry as he watched a young man leaving a rundown shack.

"Harry?"

Harry turned towards her, his eyes burning with determination as they were both suddenly ejected from the bowl and back into his room. She watched Harry pace back and forth for a moment before he finally stopped and looked at her with a sad expression on his face. Kara had never seen Harry like this before and frankly it worried her more than a little bit. It was something of a surprise when Harry suddenly stopped pacing, walked over and hugged her tightly, she could feel him trembling as he held her before he finally released her and started to speak.

"I know how Voldemort survived," he said quietly as he released her and began to pace again. "Davenport was right, those memories were important, yet the British Ministry of Magic ignored them completely."

"Tell me?" she asked, walking over and taking his hand to stop him from pacing.

"Horcruxes," he answered, spitting out the word like a poison. "Tom Riddle, the young man that would later become Voldemort, found a means of creating anchors for his soul. The magic is the darkest there is, created by insane Egyptian Priests to ensure their immortality by means of murdering an innocent and fragmenting their souls. They would then seal part of their fragmented soul into a reliquary, thus preventing the remainder of their soul from leaving the mortal plane when and if they died. The only reason we aren't swamped with undead Egyptian priests today is because the Roman wizards found out about it and hunted down ever last Horcrux they could find, destroying them all and destroying every mention of the rituals needed to make another."

Pausing a moment to take a deep breath, Harry then continued his explanation. "When Tom Riddle attacked me, he didn't die because he had those anchors to keep him here on this plane of existence. Evidently he found a mention of in a very old tome of dark magic, then asked a weak minded professor about them. He hid his interest in the topic as a philosophical exercise pertaining to magical number theory. The professor warned Tom off the topic, but secretly feared what the boy would someday do with the knowledge. As it turns out, he was right to be afraid. The Americans found out all of this years ago, even finding out that Dumbledore had discovered Tom's secret as well, but he never did anything about it. Their agents tried to tell people about it, but no one would listen, not even Dumbledore. Before his fall from grace, before I met you, they offered to help him destroy the damnable things and he refused. He told them that the situation was well in hand and would be dealt with, but it never was from what they could determine."

"What do you mean?"

Harry sighed, letting go of her hand and walking over to look out the window as he answered. "The Americans knew the location of two of the sites where Voldemort hid his Horcruxes. One is his mother's home in a village called Little Hangleton, while the other is a seaside cavern somewhere along the coast, the exact location is marked on a map in that pile over there. Dumbledore visited both sites, that much the American agents could confirm, but never attempted to retrieve the Horcruxes inside. They suspect that he was waiting for someone else to deal with it, but didn't have proof of it until about a year ago when they managed to find out there was a prophecy about me in the British Ministry. It took a few questionable favors and a retrieval team stationed in Hogsmeade for several months, but they eventually got their hands on the woman that gave the prophecy. She may not consciously remember what she said, but her subconscious mind remembers and one of their agents was able to pull the contents of the memory from her mind."

Harry, still staring out the window began to recite, **_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."_**

Kara gasped at the conclusion of the prophecy before rushing over and hugging Harry as tightly as possible, all the while saying, "No, not my Harry."

"Afraid so, love," he said with a sad smirk, hugging her back. "Looks like it's me or him when it's all said and done. It's something else Dumbledore knew about as it turns out he was the one that this woman, Sybill Trelawney, gave the prophecy to. Only thing going for us is the fact we now know how he survived the first time. I've been reviewing these memories trying to figure out where the other horcruxes are and what they might be, but so far I'm coming up empty. I was just waiting for you to get back before contacting Sirius in the hope that he might have an idea."

"I think I might have some more people to help," Kara said with a grin before she started telling him about her encounter with Hermione.

"So, we may have more allies than we thought," Harry mused once Kara was done speaking. "If we can get Tonks here along with Sirius and Angelique, we might have a good place to start. Even if they don't want to help us, all it will cost is an attempt to find the body of a dead girl, something that should have been done by Dumbledore a long time ago."

Kara nodded, looking at the clock on the nightstand and realizing they had been up here much longer than she thought. It was nearing time for them to meet up with Remus and their minds were literally buzzing with everything they had learned in a single day. She knew it was worse for Harry seeing as how he now knew he was required to fight for his life against a madman, but right now they were just to emotionally drained to care. After a good meal and some sleep they might be able to deal with it, but not right now.

"Come on, Harry," she said, taking his hand and leading him out into the hallway. "We'll do this just like we do everything else. Together."

* * *

**_Earth 7/Beta_**

**_5 November, 1994_**

**_Northern Scotland_**

**_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_**

Albus Dumbledore was not having a very good day. In fact, he had been having a long run of very bad days ever since he first found out that Harry Potter had been removed from his aunt and uncle's home. What should have been an easy to clean up little domestic dispute had become a disaster of unprecedented proportions the moment Amelia Bones and Alastor Moody found out Harry's name. Before Albus could do anything to stop it, the goblins had become involved and revealed several secrets that were better left in the dark, at least better for Dumbledore. Within days it seemed as if the world had turned against him, all his sacrifices for the sake of the Greater Good had been forgotten. It all culminated with the release of Sirius Black from Azkaban, leaving Harry in the hands of a man Albus knew could not be trusted to guide Harry in the ways that would be needed if the boy was ever to fulfill his destiny.

Now, having been granted a second chance to mold Harry in the manner required, Albus was being denied again. After all these years fate had seen fit to provide Albus with the opportunity he needed, even if currently there were a few obstacles in his way. Yes, the boy was a little more confident than Albus would have liked, no doubt the unfortunate effect of Sirius' presence. It didn't help that Harry already seemed to be attached to Black's adopted daughter, something that Albus was not happy about in the least. The girl was too strong willed and too confident in her own right. No, Albus needed Harry to be attracted to a weak willed girl that could be controlled, then at the right time she could be instructed to break up with the boy and provide the last push needed for things to finish the way they should.

"Actually, Black's daughter could work," Albus mused to himself as he sat in his room waiting for the new day to begin. "Yes, she may have to die, thus providing Harry with a motivation to fight Tom and therefore allow himself to be killed, but sacrifices must be made for the greater good."

Of course there was also the fact that Harry was far more knowledgeable than was safe. If he put up too good of a fight against Tom, then there was a chance Tom might run. Of course that would just give Harry a false sense that he could win. No, Harry needed to be handicapped if there was any hope of someone defeating Tom. Only with Harry's death could the last Horcrux be destroyed, leaving Tom mortal again and willing to surrender rather than face the possibility of being killed. The cell had already been built that would hold Tom for the remainder of his life, it was right bellow the one that currently held Albus' former lover, Gellert Grindelwald. Given time Albus hoped Tom would finally realize his actions against the light were detrimental to the "Greater Good," something that he would need to repent for. It was true that Grindelwald had yet to admit he was wrong, but Albus knew there was still time. He was positive that given time, Gellert would realize Albus had been right all along. Tom would be much the same, even if it meant spending the rest of his life in a prison cell.

Sadly, Harry Potter must die first as there was no possible way that he could defeat Tom so long as he was carrying a Horcrux in his scar, of that the old man was certain. Dumbledore had recognized there was something strange about Harry's scar the moment he first saw the boy after Tom's attack on the Potters, but he had originally assumed it was merely the boy surviving the killing curse thanks to his mothers sacrifice. It was only later that he realized what the scar represented and what it meant for Harry's future. No, Harry would have to be the one to die as it was ludicrous to think of the boy defeating the most powerful dark lord in the last fifty years. Harry would die, Tom would be defeated, and all would be right with the world.

"It's for the Greater Good," mumbled Dumbledore as he stared out his window at the predawn sky. "When people finally understand what I've done for them, they'll thank me at long last."

As he turned away he failed to notice two figures from down by the lake suddenly rise up into the air. Even if he had seen them, he probably could not have realized that all his plans were meaningless because events were already in motion that would soon leave him wondering how things got so out of his control. Sadly, Albus Dumbledore would never be able to understand that he was not the hero the world needed. No, the hero that the world needed was about to make his first appearance to the world, Muggle and Wizard, and in his wake would soon follow more. The age of Albus Dumbledore was coming to a close and the age of Harry Potter was just about to begin.

* * *

AN: Well, the answer to who the young scantily warrior was and surprise, it's Hermione!

Ginny is dead? ::Gasp:: Go figure, without Harry there to save her and open the Chamber of Secrets, no one could get to her. Dumbledore couldn't allow anyone to look too deeply into one of his failings, so he covered all up as best he could. Not really all that surprising.

Horcruxes already mentioned? Well can anyone really say that it's surprising that the BMoM would have ignored help from anyone not of the Pure Blood persuasion? The real question is, what will Harry and Kara do about them now?

So, we've taken that last step needed to show this is an AU, like there was any doubt to begin with, but you get the point. Now we step into the wider world of the story and hold on for dear life. :)

Now, enough of my rambling. Go read something and leave a review if you want.

Chris :)

* * *

Corrected: 8/4/13


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: It's A Kinda Magic**

* * *

**_Earth 7/Beta_**

**_5 November, 1994_**

**_Northern Scotland_**

**_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_**

A few hours before a rather barmy school Headmaster would plot how to take control of a certain boy's life, the boy in question was thinking or ways to set himself free. Harry hadn't slept much, not after the revelations of the previous day. The fact that Tom Riddle had go to such lengths to ensure his immortality was disturbing enough. What was worse though had to be the fact that Albus Dumbledore had known what Riddle had don, yet taken no steps to stop the madman's return. Now Harry was facing the eventual return of a psychopath and evidently he was expected to be the one to kill the fiend. Needless to say, sleep had not come easily to Harry Potter.

As he laid in bed, Kara tightly wrapped around him as if holding him tighter would make the bad news go away, he tried to be calm. Harry stroked Kara's hair, one of his favorite pastimes when he couldn't sleep, wondering what he should do now. A part of him, the part that was still a terrified little boy who slept in a cupboard, wanted him to just ignore the whole situation and pretend it wasn't happening. Another part of him, the one that had been raised by Sirius and Remus, thought he should stand up for what was right and never stop until Riddle was a bad memory. Then there was the Kryptonian part of Harry, the part which believed having the power to protect the innocent meant you couldn't turn your back on a situation like he was in now. Looking down at the girl in his arms, Harry already knew which part of him was going to win.

_"How could it not win,"_ Harry thought to himself as he gazed at Kara's sleeping form. Looking over at the clock on his nightstand, he saw it was several hours till dawn, plenty of time for what he had in mind. _"Anything that could bring you into my life, it's going to win every time out of gratitude if nothing else."_

With that thought in mind, his decision made, Harry leaned his head down to kiss Kara's nose to wake her. "Wake up, Sunshine, we've some mischief to get up to."

"Unless you've changed your mind about being ready to grow up, only thing I want to do in bed right now is sleep," growled Kara, trying wrap her arms and legs around Harry even tighter.

"Tempting," groaned Harry, a shudder passing through him, as Kara's naked body rubbed up against him. "Seriously though, wake up, we've got work to do."

Opening her eyes and glaring up at him through a curtain of blonde hair, Kara looked anything but happy about being woken up. "Harry, I love you, I really do, but it's too damned early to work on anything other than one of the following two things. One, sleeping, it's something of a hobby of mine that I like to do at night while curled up naked with my boyfriend. Two, hot and steamy sex, which unfortunately you have decided we are not having because you aren't ready to grow up yet. Are you kidding me?"

Sitting up, Kara swung one of her long toned legs over Harry and moved to straddle his boxer clad hips, her hands now firmly resting on his bare chest holding him down. "Every night for the last two years you've been poking me with this harpoon you call a penis. Do you know how frustrating that is, do you? Let me tell you, Mister Potter, I'm the same age as you and I'm MORE than ready to do a little growing up!"

As she spoke Kara was looking down at him with her long golden hair falling in cascading waves around her face to fall down over her shoulders and cover her bare chest. The fact that she had begun grinding her pelvis against his now rather painful erection just added to the extremely sexy image before him. Harry was now wondering what the hell he had woken her up for, but given Kara's flushed face and the little whimpering sound she was now making, had him a bit distracted. She was staring down at him through half-lidded eyes that were slightly glazed, occasionally biting her bottom lip as she continued to grind against him.

"Oh God, Kara," gasped Harry, his hands now firmly on her hips as he pulled her against him and started to move with her. "What are you doing?"

"Almost... there..." she moaned as the two of them continued to move against each other.

Part of Harry protested that they were not ready for something like this, though at the moment he was doing his best to ignore it, but he thought he should at least make the effort. "We shouldn't do this."

"No, we shouldn't," she replied, speeding up her motions as she began breathing even harder.

Whatever else they might have been about to say was forgotten as Harry felt his release start to build. A moment later he felt himself orgasm, which was all it took for Kara to find her release as well, moaning loudly as she did. Kara suddenly fell forward onto Harry's chest in a shuddering heap, her breathing ragged as she recovered from her orgasm. Harry's mind was just restarting when Kara suddenly claimed his lips with her own. The intensity of the kiss was amazing, leaving Harry's head spinning almost as much as his orgasm just had. The combination of his first sexual experience, even if it wasn't intercourse, with his girlfriend and the sheer power of her kiss following it had Harry's head swimming. The only thing he could really think to do at that point was to wrap his arms around Kara's waist and let sleep overtake him, his previous plans all but forgotten.

Two hours later Harry woke once again with Kara still laying on top of him. A smile crossed his lips as he remembered what had happened before his little nap. Yes, he realized they were still very young, but he couldn't lie to himself. Just like Kara, Harry had felt a little frustrated over the last few months. Kara was extremely beautiful, at least in his opinion, and sharing a bed each night with a naked girl had his mind exploring some very erotic fantasies about his long time friend and now girlfriend. Still, he worried that they weren't ready for the more physical aspects of a relationship.

Kara lifted her head from his chest, moving her hands to his chest and placing them under her chin so she could look him in the eyes. "I can hear you thinking, you know that, right?"

"That was amazing," admitted Harry, "but are we really ready for that type of thing? We're only fourteen, Sunshine."

"I did some thinking last night after we turned off the lights," she said, looking him straight in the eyes. "I thought about everything you told me yesterday and about your comment the other day that you weren't ready to grow up. The problem is we don't know how much time we have before that asshole returns and I'm not sure I want to wait. What if something happens to one of us?"

"I won't let anything happen to you, Kara!" Harry stated, his determination practically dripping off every word.

"That's great, Harry, but what if something happens to you?" she asked, looking deeply into his eyes. "You think I want to lose you anymore than you want to lose me? In case you haven't figured it out, I laid my claim on you the moment I first saw you. You were my Prince Charming, before I ever even knew who that was. You woke me from my crystal coffin and we've been living a wonderful fairytale ever since. So, no, I'm not going to let anything happen to you either. I'm not ready to go all the way, not yet, but I want more than just holding hands and an occasional kiss or hug."

Harry thought about it for a moment and Kara was right. "Ok, I can't say I'm unhappy about what happened, but I'm not ready for more either. If that changes, for either of us, we need to talk about it."

"I'm good with that," Kara agreed. "Meanwhile, I think we need to do something to make sure we don't run out of time."

Harry nodded, saying, "My thoughts exactly, which is why I woke you up earlier. I think we need to go take a look at these damned objects."

"In case you haven't notice, Harry, we're not at home where we can just fly off to do a bit of exploring," she pointed out with a dry tone. "How do you expect to get past some of the most powerful wards in the world?"

Harry smirked before pointing up at the ceiling. "Yep, great wards they got here. Surround the entire school grounds. Funny thing is, they only go straight up for about ten thousand feet, higher than a broom can fly, but not high enough to stop someone like you and me. We can be over the wards in moments and no one will know."

"Oh, that's brilliant!" exclaimed Kara, pushing herself up so she was straddling Harry's hips again, the sudden movement causing a bit of friction and reminding them of their previous experience. Blushing, Kara quickly climbed off Harry with a naughty smile, saying, "Maybe we should clean up first, then head out. We've got time before morning classes."

Blushing as well, mostly because seeing Kara standing naked before him after what had happened between them left him pulling the covers over his boxers to hide his reaction to her. "Yeah, you go clean up and I'll meet you back here in fifteen minutes."

Glancing down at his waist, Kara blushed before she vanished in a super speed dash to her room. Doing the same, Harry was out of bed and in the shower before the sheets could settle back on the bed. Ten minutes later he was showered, an extremely cold shower, and dressed ready for their adventure. Harry wore a black outfit consisting of a skintight t-shirt and jeans along with a pair of dragon skin boots. He was just pulling out two of his black dragon skin traveling cloaks when he heard his door open again and turned to see Kara sneaking back into his room. He was a bit surprised at her choice of clothing, but wasn't going to complain.

Seeing Harry was admiring her, Kara spun around so he could get the full effect of her outfit. Harry had to admit, while it might not seem practical, it was sure sexy. Where he had gone for utilitarian, Kara had aimed for freedom of movement. Her choice to wear the tiniest pair of black spandex shorts Harry had ever seen, a black midriff baring t-shirt, and black ballet flats had him a bit confused. The fact that the whole ensemble looked more like it had been painted on more than anything else left him wishing his own pants were not nearly as tight as they were.

"Damn," he finally hissed. "Where the hell have you been hiding that outfit?"

Kara giggle, taking the traveling cloak Harry handed here. "I've had it for a while. I planned to use it in one of our spars, see if I could distract you while we fought, but this seemed the more appropriate time for it. Besides, it's not as if there's too much that can seriously injure us, now is there. I could just go naked and still not have to worry about getting hurt."

Now that was an image Harry was going to have to hold on to. "True, but I probably would, considering I'd be tripping over my own feet every few minutes."

Kara giggled again as she put the cloak around her shoulders. "It's not like you haven't seen me naked before, Harry."

"That's different," he countered with a smirk. "Seeing you in bed each night or on the beach is one thing, but the thought of being someplace semi-public with you naked, now that's just hot."

"I'll remember that," she saucily replied. "Maybe one of these days we can go camping alone and try it out."

With that thought in mind and after adjusting his pants to relieve a bit of strain, Harry led Kara out his window and into the air. Pulling up their hoods, the two of them streaked up into the sky. They cleared the clouds in seconds before Harry activated his Mage Sight to make sure they were clear of the school's wards before they took off. The closest of the two sights Riddle had used to hide his soul fragments in was his mother's old house. Harry had memorized the location from the map Davenport had provided, which turned out to be a good thing as the place was incredibly difficult to find, even from the air.

The old shack was close to a village named Little Hangleton, a tiny little rural village. The former Gaunt family home was hidden amongst a grove of overgrown trees and assorted plants and had obviously been abandoned for some time. It was obvious the shack, for that's really all it was, had once been part of a much larger house, but was all that remained of the previous structure. Harry thought the place looked creepy, but Kara found it sad. It was only when they scanned it with their Mage/Energy Sight that they fully realized how magically well protected the place really was.

"It looks like someone really didn't want anyone getting in there," commented Kara as she examined the wards around the shack.

"Yeah, but notice they once again just created wards that go straight up, not bothering to seal them after they enter the cloud layer?" pointed out Harry as he looked up into the sky.

Kara nodded, "Wizards here in England don't seem to think three dimensionally. It's like they don't expect anyone to ever be able to get above their wards."

Harry agreed, flying up into the clouds above the shack and crossing over the ward line below. "Sunshine, common sense has never been a strong point for these people. They assume that if a broom can't get over it, neither can anything else. Considering when they discovered wards the non-magical population of the world couldn't fly, it just never entered their minds to take that extra step and seal the top of their protections. Even _Apparition_ works on the principal of using straight two dimensional thinking, using a straight line to reach your destination. God forbid you run into a ward scheme designed to prevent it, you'ld be stopped dead in your tracks."

"Completely worthless if someone teleported above the wards and then back down beyond them," added Kara. "Sure, these wards are powerful, probably some of the most powerful I've ever seen, but go over them and their worthless."

Now directly over the shack, the duo once again scanned the house with their Magical/Energy Sight. The entire shack was filled with extremely powerful and dark magic, but the darkest of all was a single tiny object hidden under a floorboard. The object was a bit confusing as it seemed to radiate two different types of magic, one being dormant while the other exuded a greasy black aura that seemed to slither around the object as if it was alive. A closer examination using their telescopic vision in tandem with their mage/energy sight revealed the object to be a ring of some sort.

"That's got to be it," hissed Harry, not liking the look of the dark magic. "Damned thing looks alive, so I'm betting that's where Riddle's soul piece is located."

"Should we destroy it?" asked Kara, turning to look at Harry as they floated above the shack.

Harry debated the merits of destroying the ring now, long before Riddle returned. On the one hand they knew it would prevent Riddle from being truly destroyed, but on the other they didn't know if it gave him any other advantages. Caution dictated they wait, get more information about Horcruxes before destroying it, but Harry was never one for caution. Still, Harry was unsure of the nature of the other dark magics surrounding the object, so destroying it would have to be done from a distance.

"We destroy it," he growled, glaring at the ring. "Concentrate your heat vision on it, full power until it's nothing but slag."

Without another word, Harry concentrated on mustering up the most intense blast of heat vision he had ever used. At first nothing happened, the dark magics around the ring seemed to resist the intense heat. It was only when Kara joined him in trying to destroy the object that the protections began to crumble. With the two of them focusing their intense blasts of heat at the ring the protections took seconds to shatter, then the ring began to glow white. Keeping it up, the pair watched as the gold band of the ring was reduced to atomized gold. The rings stone, a strangely marked black crystal, seemed to hold up much longer before it suddenly exploded.

Two things happened at once, the first being a cloud of black smoke rose up from the destroyed crystal. Their sensitive hearing could pick up the faint shrieking of a hollow voice before the smoke faded away. Next there was a flash of white light that seemed to last far longer than it should before it finally faded. Once the light was gone it was clear that the crystal had been destroyed, leaving no trace behind that it had ever existed.

Unbeknownst to Harry or Kara, back at Hogwarts two objects suddenly flared white for a split second before they returned to normal. The first object was the old invisibility cloak Harry's father had left for him, while the other was a wand in Dumbledore's possession. The destruction of the stone, one of the fabled Deathly Hallows, had forever prevented anyone from ever becoming the Master of Death the old legends spoke of. It also weakened the two remaining Hallows, leaving them powerful still, but not to the degree they had formerly been. As Harry had rarely if ever used his father's old cloak, not really needing to be invisible since he could move faster than the human eye could see, he would never notice the difference. Albus Dumbledore however would notice in the following days that his spells seemed just slightly weaker, but he would right it off to his own advancing age.

Once sure that nothing remained of the foul magic Riddle had used, Harry led Kara higher into the sky before turning towards the second site. "That was easier than I thought it would be."

"Little anticlimactic, if you ask me," agreed Kara as she flew beside him. "I take it we are going to do the same to the second one?"

"Might as well, we've still got plenty of time," Harry said with a shrug. "Honestly, I thought we were in for a massive fight against an army of magical beasts. This was just too easy."

Kara nodded as they accelerated towards the coast and the cave where Riddle had hidden his next object. "Still, now that we've seen what a Horcrux looks like, we'll have an easier time discovering the location of the others."

"That's true, a quick scan of the country from low orbit should give us the location of the other objects," theorized Harry as the neared the second location. "Should we do it before returning to Hogwarts?"

Kara seemed to think about that for a moment, then shook just as they arrived at the coast. "No, let's talk to Sirius and Remus before we do that, Clark as well. Get a few more opinions before we do anything else."

"True," agreed Harry, as he floated over the cliffside and examined the area around them. "I see the cavern, it's just below us."

Kara activated her mage/energy sight and looked down as well. "Nasty! An entire lake filled with zombies. Riddle is one sick puppy!"

Harry nodded as he continued to examine the location. It was a gigantic underground lake filled with the countless bodies of Riddle's victims, each enchanted with multiple dark spells to give them a semblance of life. There were numerous other dark enchantments inside the cavern, but what wasn't present was any trace of the same dark magic as had been on the ring. Harry looked everywhere, even landing on the top of the cliff to better examine the area, but there was no trace of anything other than an old locket laying in a pool of some exotic poison.

"The Americans may have thought one of Riddle's Horcruxes was here, but evidently they were wrong," muttered Harry, finally looking at Kara. "Either this place was designed to be a trap for anyone looking for the Horcruxes, or someone else beat us to it."

"We'll tell the others about it later, see what they think," Kara offered.

Any further conversation was cut off when they heard the sound of an explosion in the distance. Looking in the direction of the sound, the duo saw a jetliner over the English Channel with flames shooting out of one of its engines. Not even thinking about it, the pair streaked towards the crippled aircraft to lend assistance. Barely a second later they watched as a second engine caught fire, causing the plane to lose altitude rapidly. The panicked voice of the pilot, clearly heard by their sensitive ears, was praying for help as his copilot instructed the passengers to assume the crash position.

"You get under the good wing, I've got the bad one," instructed Harry as they swooped under the planes wings.

Using their X-ray vision to find the best place to hold onto the wing to prevent it from crumpling, Harry and Kara gently took up their positions. Slowly they started to lift, trying to get the jet back up to a safe altitude. At first it seemed to be working, but the craft's damaged engines had damaged Harry's wing too much, causing the distressed metal to give way under the strain. It was only by sheer luck that Harry managed to hold on as the wing sheered off, keeping the plane from tumbling, but as the wreckage spun past him it hit the tail section. The jet suddenly lurched in the air, throwing Kara some distance away and leaving Harry clinging to the suddenly tumbling aircraft.

"I can't hold on!" shouted Harry as he lost his grip and was thrown from the craft.

Streaking back towards the now plummeting craft, Harry and Kara were suddenly surprised to see a green light engulf the jet. Looking up at the source of the light they were surprised to see a green clad figure floating in the sky above them. The figure was easily recognized as Luna Lovegood wearing her uniform as a Green Lantern. Flying up next to her as she guided the now secured airliner towards the coast, Harry and Kara smiled at the mysterious girl.

"Did someone decide to go off adventuring and forget to invite me?" asked Luna with a grin.

"That we did, Luna, but never again after this," admitted Harry. "I thought we were going to lose that plane.

Kara was examining the passengers with her X-ray vision, saying, "Some minor injuries and a few soiled knickers, but otherwise they are all doing fine."

"That's good to hear," acknowledged Luna as a second beam of light suddenly took the form of a gigantic pair of tin snips and removed the remaining wing. Watching the wing fall harmlessly into the water below, Luna nodded to herself before they arrived at the coast. "I'm sure sure you and Kara could have saved the plane, Harry, but I just happened to pickup the distress call thanks to Bert and thought it best to lend a hand."

Having arrived over a large clearing with a small village nearby, Luna gently set the damaged aircraft down while Harry and Kara pushed large mounds of dirt up beside it to keep it from rolling over. Flashes of light could be seen from the windows of the aircraft, but Harry wrote it off to emergency lighting inside the downed plane. Moments later, just seconds after Luna retracted the glowing green energy from around it, one of the plane's hatches opened and an inflatable slide was deployed. Not wanting to be seen, the trio streaked off into the night sky, heading back towards Scotland and Hogwarts. None of them fully grasping the importance of the flashing lights seen from inside the plane or the fact that numerous tourists had snapped countless pictures of them.

The trio made it back to Hogwarts in record time, bypassing the wards and each returning to their respective rooms after agreeing to meet up the next day to discuss what had happened. For Harry and Kara that meant sneaking back into the Veela Embassy through the window to his room, just as the first rays of sunlight cleared the horizon. Stripping out of their clothes and casting numerous cleaning charms on them to purge the stink of burning jet fuel, the pair quickly agreed that another hour or two of sleep was called for.

"Harry?" Kara asked after they had crawled back into bed together. "You think we can do that again?"

"What, safe a burning jet and destroy a heavily cursed magical object?" He asked, trying not to yawn as he wrapped his arms around Kara.

"Umm, yeah, that too, but I was thinking of something else," she murmured, her cheeks a flaming red color now. "Actually, I was thinking of that other thing we did tonight?"

"Uh... Uh..." stammered Harry, also sporting a blush now. "I'm not wearing boxers, Kara."

Moving to straddle his hips, Kara gave him a very naughty look. "I know."


End file.
